Property Assessment

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7^th Circuit court of Appeals

Case Name: Kansas City Southern Railway Company, et al. v. SNY Island Levee Drainage District

Case No.: 15-2760

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and BAUER and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Property Assessment

Assessment calculation formula used was proper by the district court.

“Last, the Railroads contend that the comparison class against which their assessment should be measured is all other properties in the District, instead of the narrower class of commercial and industrial properties used by the district court. They argue that Alabama Dep’t of Revenue v. CSX Transp., Inc., 135 S. Ct. 1136 (2015) (“CSX II”), is inconsistent with our 2012 decision in Koeller, which held that the appropriate comparison class for the Railroads was other RPU and commercial and industrial properties. In CSX II, the Court found that competitors with the plaintiff railroad were the appropriate comparison class for a (b)(4) claim because the comparison class should be “based on the theory of discrimination alleged in the claim.” Id. at 1138. It also stated that “all general and commercial taxpayers is an appropriate comparison class,” but “not the only one,” and that “all the world, or at least all the world within the taxing jurisdiction, is [a railroad’s] comparison-class oyster” under (b)(4). Id. at 1141. The Court clarified that the “similarly situated” requirement is not as narrow in the 4-R Act as for tax claims under the Equal Protection Clause. Id. at 1142. And the Court noted that railroads cannot easily “hand-pick” their comparison class based on CSX II, because “it is not easy to establish that the selected class is ‘similarly situated’ for purposes of discrimination in taxation.” Id. at 1143.”

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.