Court Opinion

ID: 9558325
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:07:05.53595+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:08:47.241918
License: Public Domain

PlERRON, J.,
dissenting: I respectfully dissent. As pointed out in the majority opinion, the rulings of bodies such as the Board of Tax Appeals (BOTA) on subjects within their area of expertise carry *541a strong presumption of correctness. The procedure set out in the PVD Guide to value oil and gas leases was adopted due to the well-known possibility of significant fluctuations in production over the short run, which can distort the true value of a lease.
The majority does not seem to dispute that the reason for checking production figures from beyond the tax year is logical, if the goal is to find the true value of the lease. Instead, it appears to rule that the statutes require us to ignore any information about production from subsequent quarters, because hypothetical buyers and sellers on the assessment date (January 1) would not have that information.
There appears to be nothing in the statutes or case law which would limit the information concerning the value of the lease on the target date to that generated in the tax year. In determining the value for a particular tax year, the PVD Guide uses the production figures for subsequent tax year quarters only for informational purposes, as they relate to the state of the reserves. As long as the figures are used for this purpose, they are not in conflict with the assessment statutes.
I fear this decision incorrectly denies the expertise of BOTA in this area and will force the implementation of a new assessment system that is less reliable and sometimes erratic. This approach is not required by the statutes.