Cain v. Custer Cty. Bd. of Equal., 1 N.W.3d 512

Donald V. Cain, Jr. owns 10 contiguous parcels of agricultural land in Custer County, Nebraska.
For tax year 2012, Cain successfully challenged the property’s valuation, leading the Nebraska Supreme Court to set a lower actual value per acre.
For tax year 2013, the Custer County Assessor again assessed Cain’s property using a mass appraisal method, leading to a higher valuation ($1,927,518).
Cain protested the 2013 assessment, arguing it should have been based on the court-determined 2012 valuation, but the Board of Equalization and the Tax Equalization and Review Commission (TERC) affirmed the assessor's 2013 value.
Cain appealed to the Nebraska Supreme Court, asserting primarily that the 2012 value should control and raising issues regarding mass appraisal, actual value determination, and equalization.

Issue	Cain’s Argument	County Board’s Argument	Held
Whether 2012 court-determined value controls 2013 assessment	2012 value set by Supreme Court should be baseline, with only standard yearly increase applied	Each year’s value is assessed independently under Nebraska law	Prior year’s valuation is not binding or admissible for subsequent year’s assessment
Whether Board determined property’s actual value	Board never determined actual value, only assessed value, violating statutory requirements	Assessed value is based on actual value via mass appraisal and standard reductions	Evidence showed Board and Assessor determined actual value as required
Whether the mass appraisal and use of comparables were deficient	No tangible mass appraisal entered at hearing; failed to account for property’s unique characteristics	Mass appraisal based on sales of comparable properties, methodology applied equally throughout market area	Mass appraisal evidence was legally sufficient and followed statutory guidelines
Whether equalization was achieved	Property’s valuation increased disproportionately compared to similar properties, violating uniformity	Assessment was uniform; comparable nearby properties treated identically using same method	Cain failed to introduce competent evidence showing unequal or discriminatory assessment

Cain v. Custer Cty. Bd. of Equal., 298 Neb. 834 (explained standards for comparing grassland versus irrigated cropland and addressed appropriate valuation methodologies)
Affiliated Foods Co-op v. County of Madison, 229 Neb. 605 (holding prior years' valuations cannot control subsequent assessments under Nebraska law)
DeVore v. Board of Equalization, 144 Neb. 351 (clarified that each year’s property assessment and valuation must be determined independently)
Omaha Paxton Hotel Co. v. Board of Equalization, 167 Neb. 231 (reaffirmed annual independent assessment requirement)