541 A.2d 40 | Pa. Commw. Ct. | 1988
Opinion by
The City of Pittsburgh (City) appeals here the orders of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County in two real estate tax assessment cases involving the 1984 through 1987 assessments of a four-story office and commercial building owned by August C. Damian (Taxpayer). We affirm.
In 1984, the Allegheny County Board of Property Assessment, Appeals and Review (Board) assessed this
The City, while recognizing that this Court’s scope of review is limited to determining whether the trial court abused its discretion or committed an error of law, and that the trial court’s findings must be given great force and will not be disturbed unless clear error appears, Dana Corp. v. Wentz, 95 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 269, 505 A.2d 639 (1986), presents two arguments for our review. First, the City introduced into evidence a copy of a recorded deed and mortgage showing that taxpayer and the Allegheny County Industrial Development Authority (ACIDA) had purchased the property in 1982 for $495,000 and subsequently mortgaged the property for $860,000 to Pittsburgh National Bank as part of a redevelopment package sponsored by ACIDA. At the close of the trial, the trial judge struck these exhibits on taxpayer’s motion that the City’s expert had,not based his opinion on the exhibits. The City contends that these exhibits may stand- independently as probative evidence of value. Secondly, the City attacks the testimony of taxpayer’s expert as not credible based on a multiplication error used in calculating the property’s value under the income approach and because the ex
The function of the trial judge in a tax assessment case is not to independently value the property himself but to weigh the conflicting testimony and values expressed by the competing experts and arrive at a valuation based on the credibility of their opinions. Matter of Harrisburg Park Apartments, Inc., 88 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 410, 489 A.2d 996 (1985). The trial judge is not an expert in valuing property and he is not free to substitute his own opinion for that of the experts based on independent evidence submitted by the parties. Appeal of Avco Corp., 100 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 616, 515 A.2d 335 (1986). Consequently, it is not error to strike “independent” evidence of value as irrelevant unless it is relied upon by the experts in stating their opinions as to value. The City’s expert used the income and market data approaches in rendering his opinion. He did not use the 1982 sale of the property as a comparable or rely on it in rendering his opinion as to fair market value.
Turning to the City’s second argument, the taxpayer’s expert in rendering his opinion used all three methods of calculating fair market value: income, market data, and reproduction. The expert testified that the value of the property under the income approach was $378,000. But in calculating this sum the expert made a multiplication mistake which if corrected would nearly double this amount. We do not believe this alone is sufficient to justify reversal of the trial court’s decision. The trial court could have simply thrown out the income ■ approach and relied on the taxpayer’s opinions stated under the market data and reproduction approaches. Opinion based on these approaches alone would constitute sufficient supporting evidence to sus
Order
Now, May 2, 1988, the orders of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County at Nos. GD84-17823 and GD84-18583, both dated January 21, 1987, are hereby affirmed.
