Court Opinion

ID: 9756094
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 21:06:44.959075+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:14.645849
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Judge Williams, Jr. :
I respectfully dissent.
It is my opinion that the majority misconstrues the Deitch case. Nowhere in the Deitch opinion does the Supreme Court set forth any one method as the exclusive means of determining the “common level.” For example, the Supreme Court’s opinion states, on Page 220, that “where the evidence indicates that no such fixed ratio has been applied, and that ratios vary widely in the district, the average of such ratios may be considered the ‘common level’.”
Also, on Page 221 of the Deitch opinion, the Court added the following: “Furthermore, it may be that the evidence will show some percentage of assessed to market value about which the bulk of individual assessments tend to cluster, in which event such percent*515age might be acceptable as the common level.” On Page 223 the Supreme Court went on to say: “The evidence supplied by the taxpayer in Brooks* illustrates one method by which a taxpayer can meet his burden of proving a lack of uniformity, but ive do not consider it to be the only method. It would be equally satisfactory to produce evidence regarding the ratios of assessed values to market values as the latter are reflected in actual sales of any other real estate in the taxing district for a reasonable period prior to the assessment date. ’ ’ (Emphasis added.)
Nowhere in the Deitch case is there any reference to what is meant by “average” ratio. Is it a weighted average or an unweighted average or a combination of both? Neither the Legislature nor the Appellate Courts have specified the method of calculation. The lower court wisely considered both methods used in the sales-ratio study by both the Board and the taxpayers, the biases inherent in each, the credibility of the experts, and the weight to be given to their testimony. By that process the lower court arrived at a just and fair conclusion. Weight and credibility are for the fact-finder. There is absolutely nothing to show that the trial judge “erred in proceeding upon a theory which differed from that in Deitch”.
The majority misconstrues the use by the Board of the stratification of the sales samples. Under our law, as the lower court recognized, there is only one class of real estate for tax purposes and there cannot be a different ratio for commercial, industrial, residential, etc. All properties are comparable in constructing the appropriate ratio. The court simply approved dividing the large group of heterogeneous properties within the *516district into more homogeneous classes, in order to lessen the biases and distortions in each method and to arrive at a more overall equitable result based on the district as a whole, with one ratio for all property.
The methodology approved by the lower court was that propounded by the Board’s expert witness. The weight of that witness’s opinion was for the lower court, as fact-finder, to determine. Moodie v. Westinghouse Electric Corp., 367 Pa. 493, 80 A.2d 734 (1951). That is true even though the majority of an appellate court would have weighed the opinion differently. And, it cannot be said that the method of calculation advanced by the Board’s expert, and approved by the court below, violates any dictate of the Deitch case.
The lower court wrote:
The appellate courts have not rigidly defined the concept of average ratio . . .although the Court views both methodologies as valid, the Board’s procedure is seen as more accurate and appropriate for this case as it is the one that truly covers the entire taxing district.
In that regard, I cannot see why it would be any more difficult for the average taxpayer to understand the Court’s approach, than it would be to understand that advanced by the taxpayer litigants in this case.
More disturbing to me is the short shrift the majority gives the taxpayers’ use of equity to seek their constitutional right of uniformity. These taxpayers seek the aid of equity because the statutorily prescribed remedies are inadequate. How can the individual owner of residential property in Philadelphia, seeking individual relief before the Board, possibly solve the city-wide constitutional controversy which has taken legal form in these proceedings?
In Borough of Green Tree v. Board of Property Assessments, 459 Pa. 268, 328 A.2d 819 (1974), the Supreme Court held that equity was available to enter*517tain a constitutional challenge to tax assessments under the uniformity clause. The Court’s opinion expressly recognized that individual appeals to an assessment board are not an adequate means to resolve the issue. In Justice Roberts ’ concurring opinion he said:
Tax appeals boards were created to review real estate assessments. They are totally unsuited both by skill and purpose to adjudicate constitutional issues. The Board procedures may perhaps be adequate for deciding individual claims of improper assessment, but they are plainly inadequate when faced with a broad-based attack on the constitutionality of a taxing statute or the assessment procedure.
Not only is the statutory remedy inadequate to resolve the constitutional issue involved in each of the tax cases before the lower court, there is no provision in Philadelphia County for the Board to entertain a class action. Accordingly, a class action in equity is a proper device to resolve the constitutional question. To restrict the taxpayers of Philadelphia to an inadequate statutory remedy is to delay the eradication of unconstitutional assessment practices and to permit some people to elude bearing their fair share of the common tax burden.
I would affirm the lower court.
President Judge Crttmlish joins.

Brooks Building Tax Assessment Case, 391 Pa. 94, 137 A.2d 273 (1958), the taxpayer produced evidence that several properties were assessed at ratios ranging from 40.2% to 57.2% while his property was assessed at 91.9%.