Metropolitan Jacobson Development Venture v. Board of Review of City of Des Moines

• Decision Date: 23 November 1994
• Docket Number: No. 93-557,93-557
• Citation: 524 N.W.2d 189
• Parties: METROPOLITAN JACOBSON DEVELOPMENT VENTURE and Washington Avenue Venture, Appellants, v. BOARD OF REVIEW OF the CITY OF DES MOINES, Appellee.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 189

524 N.W.2d 189

METROPOLITAN JACOBSON DEVELOPMENT VENTURE and Washington Avenue Venture, Appellants, v. BOARD OF REVIEW OF the CITY OF DES MOINES, Appellee.

No. 93-557.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Nov. 23, 1994.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 20, 1994.

Dennis P. Ogden, Gerard D. Neugent, and Margaret C. Callahan of Belin Harris Lamson McCormick, A Professional Corp., Des Moines, for appellants.

William R. Clark, Jr. of Herrick, Langdon & Langdon, Des Moines, for appellee.

Considered by McGIVERIN, C.J., and LAVORATO, NEUMAN, ANDREASEN, and TERNUS, JJ.

TERNUS, Justice.

Appellants, Metropolitan Jacobson Development Venture and Washington Avenue Venture, own commercial warehouse properties in the City of Des Moines. They challenged the assessments ¹ of these properties as excessive and inequitable. The district court agreed and reduced the assessed values.

The property owners appealed claiming that the reduced assessments are still inequitable because the properties are assessed at a greater percentage of market value than are comparable properties. The Board of Review of the City of Des Moines cross-appealed claiming that the court erred in reducing the 1991 assessed values of the properties.

We agree with the trial court's determination that the 1991 assessed values of these properties are excessive. Because we conclude that a different ratio of assessed to market value should be used to arrive at the assessed values for the subject properties, we modify the assessed values decreed by the trial court. Therefore, we affirm as modified.

I. Background Facts and Proceedings.

Two sets of properties are involved in this case. Metropolitan Jacobson owns a three-building warehouse complex on McDonald Avenue. Because each warehouse was built at a different time, the city assesses and taxes each as a separate parcel. They are known locally as 4121, 4141 and 4161 McDonald Avenue.

The second set of properties consists of two buildings located on East Washington Avenue. They are assessed for tax purposes as one parcel so we refer to them as one property. Washington Avenue Venture owns the East Washington property.

A. The prior appeals. The property owners first sought relief from property tax assessments on 4161 McDonald Avenue and the East Washington property in 1986, 1987, and 1988. In these appeals, the property owners claimed that the properties were assessed at more than their market values. They also claimed that the ratio of assessed value to market value was higher for their properties than for comparable properties.

The district court in the earlier case entered a decree establishing fair market values for the subject properties and comparable properties. Based on these findings, the court ordered that the assessed values be reduced. In a subsequent ruling on a posttrial motion, the court further reduced the assessed values by establishing a lower ratio than the one used by the Board. The court of appeals affirmed the district court's decision. Metropolitan Jacobson Dev. Venture v. Board of Review, 476 N.W.2d 726 (Iowa App.1991).

B. Subsequent assessments. The 1989 assessments for these properties were completed in April and May of 1989, shortly after the district court's initial decision in the earlier appeals. Despite the court's ruling, the city did not change the assessments on any of the properties to the court-established values.

When the 1989 assessments were appealed to the Board of Review, the city assessor instructed the deputy assessor to reassess the McDonald Avenue properties. The assessor's office then generated its own fair market values rather than using the lower values set by the district court in the prior appeals. It also chose a ratio of assessed value to market value substantially higher than the one used by the court only two months earlier. As a result, the 1989 assessments were significantly higher than the 1988 assessments set by the court.

No effort was made to correct the 1989 assessment on the East Washington property. Thus, the 1989 assessment for this property remained at the original 1988 level that had been found inequitable and excessive.

In 1990, the city assessor assessed the McDonald Avenue properties the same as in 1989. The assessment was raised on the East Washington property in 1990, bringing its assessment to 115.9% of its fair market value as established by the court less than two years earlier.

In 1991, each of the McDonald Avenue properties received a significant increase in assessment. The assessment on the East Washington property remained the same in 1991 as it was in 1990.

C. Administrative and judicial review of assessments. The property owners appealed these assessments to the Board of Review. ² See Iowa Code § 441.37 (1993). The Board reduced the 1991 assessment on the Washington Avenue property. The other assessments were not changed.

The property owners then appealed to the district court. See id. § 441.38. The appeals were consolidated for purposes of trial in the district court. See id. §§ 441.38-.39. After hearing evidence, the district court concluded that the fair market values for all the properties remained the same in 1989 through 1991 as they had been in 1988. The court found no change in the physical characteristics of the properties, the tenant mix of the properties or the market conditions for sale or lease of the properties that would justify an increase in market value.

The court also decided that the properties were assessed at a higher percentage of their market value than any of the comparable properties. Consequently, it ordered the assessor to use a percentage no higher than the highest percentage used for any of the comparable properties in each year.

The result of the court's decree was a reduction in the assessed values on all but one of the properties for each year appealed. (The 1989 assessed value of 4121 McDonald Avenue was increased.) The property owners appealed because they thought the assessed values should be even lower by using a smaller ratio of assessed value to market value. The Board cross-appealed because it believed the court should have found an increase in the market values of these properties in 1991.

This case was tried in equity. Iowa Code § 441.39 (1993). Therefore, our review is de novo. Iowa R.App.P. 4. We give weight to the trial court's findings of fact but are not bound by them. Iowa R.App.P. 14(f)(7). We are especially deferential to the court's assessment of the credibility of witnesses. Id.

II. Excessive Assessments Claim: Do the 1991 Assessed Values Exceed the 1991 Fair Market Values?

One basis upon which an assessment may be appealed is that "the property is assessed for more than the value authorized by law." Iowa Code § 441.37(1)(b) (1993). The value authorized by law is the "fair and reasonable market value" of the property. Id. § 441.21(1)(a), (b). Consequently, an assessment is excessive if it is higher than the market value of the property. See id. § 441.37(1)(b). Thus, in deciding whether an assessment is excessive, it is necessary to determine the fair market value of the assessed property.

Here the district court found that the market values of the subject properties did not increase in 1991 from the values established by the district court in the first set of appeals. Based on this finding, the district court concluded that the 1991 assessed values, which were higher than the market values, were excessive. The Board cross-appealed this decision.

The burden of proof is on the property owner to prove that the assessed value is excessive. Iowa Code § 441.21(3) (1993). If the property owner offers competent evidence from at least two disinterested witnesses that the market value is less than that determined by the assessor, the burden of persuasion shifts to the board of review. Riso v. Pottawattamie Bd. of Review, 362 N.W.2d 513, 517-18 (Iowa 1985); Iowa Code § 441.21(3) (1993).

The property owners here did not offer the testimony of two disinterested witnesses so the burden remains on the owners to prove that the valuations were excessive. Post-Newsweek Cable, Inc. v. Board of Review, 497 N.W.2d 810, 813 (Iowa 1993); Richards v. Hardin County Bd. of Review, 393 N.W.2d 148, 150 (Iowa 1986). The property owners are assisted, however, by a presumption arising from the court-established 1988 valuations of the Washington Avenue property and the 4161 McDonald Avenue parcel. "[I]t is presumed that a valuation fixed by the court continues to be the true value of the property in subsequent years" unless a change in value is shown. 16 Eugene McQuillin, The Law of Municipal Corporations § 44.111, at 471 (3d ed. rev. 1994). Cf. Cott v. Board of Review, 442 N.W.2d 78, 81 (Iowa 1989) (unless the use of property has changed, it is presumed that a classification adjudicated by the court continues).

The same presumption arising from the district court's valuation of all the properties for 1989 and 1990 also helps the property owners. The Board did not appeal that portion of the district court's decree establishing the 1989 and 1990 market values of the properties. Therefore, in the absence of a proven change in value, we presume that the values of the properties in 1991 remained the same as the valuations fixed by the court for 1989 and 1990.

We now turn to a review of the evidence offered by the property owners and the Board. The evidence is overwhelming that there was no change in the market for warehouse properties that would justify raising the market values of the subject properties in 1991. Additionally, the few physical changes made to the warehouses in 1990 do not support any increases in the 1991 market values of these properties.

We believe the evidence introduced at trial is insufficient to overcome the presumption that the market values of the subject properties remained the same in 1991 as they had been in 1986 through 1990. Therefore, we agree with the district court that...