Tax Assessment – Presumption of Correctness

WI Court of Supreme Court

Case Name: Lowe’s Home Centers, LLC v. City of Delavan

Case No.: 2019AP001987

Officials: Ann Walsh Bradley, J.

Focus: Tax Assessment – Presumption of Correctness

The petitioner, Lowe’s Home Centers, LLC, seeks review of an unpublished per curiam decision of the court of appeals affirming the circuit court’s determination that the City of Delavan’s assessments of Lowe’s’ property for the 2016 and 2017 tax years were not excessive. Lowe’s contends that the City’s assessments should not have received a presumption of correctness and that the assessments improperly excluded comparable properties for the sole reason that those properties were unoccupied.

Specifically, Lowe’s contends that the City’s assessments should not have received a presumption of correctness because, it argues, they were conducted in violation of the dictates of the Wisconsin Property Assessment Manual (the Manual). Further, it asserts that the vacant big-box retail locations it presented to the circuit court are comparable to the subject property and thus should have been considered in the City’s assessments.

The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) the presumption of correctness attached to the City’s assessments; and (2) Lowe’s failed to demonstrate that the assessments were excessive.

Decided 2/16/23

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