In This Winter 2012 Issue:
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Critical Procedural Issue Decided
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Upgrading of the Appraisal Profession
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Environmental Remediation Claim Fails
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Second CIP Case Decided
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Fairfield Assessor Retires
Excerpt from Critical Procedural Issue Decided Wal-Mart Stores leased property in New Britain from Samnard Associates. After the city revalued all real estate within its boundaries as of October 1, 2007, Samnard authorized Wal-Mart to appeal the assessment to the New Britain Board of Assessment Appeals which reduced the value; no further action was taken either by Wal-Mart or Samnard.
Two years later, Samnard filed its own appeal challenging the reduced value obtained by Wal-Mart, again as of October 1, 2007. Unwilling to allow a second bite at the apple, the city filed a motion for summary judgment in which it asserted that the Board of Assessment Appeals’ earlier reduction precluded further action by either the landlord or tenant. Samnard argued that a board of assessment appeals decision could not have preclusive effect because Wal-Mart did not take the case beyond the local board.
In support of its position, the city called the court's attention to 2009 legislation which provides when a local board of assessment appeals changes an assessment, "the amount of such . . . assessment shall be fixed until the assessment year in which the municipality next implements a revaluation of real property (within the municipality)."
While recognizing that a board of assessment appeals decision, lacking the characteristics of a judicial tribunal, may not have the same preclusive impact that a court decision would create, the New Britain Superior Court reviewed a number of Connecticut Supreme Court rulings and denied the landlord its desired second bite...
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