Last month, the Commonwealth Court decided a case that is worth some study for environmental lawyers about how to value contaminated property. Appeal of Harley-Davidson Motor, No. 159 C.D. 2013 (Pa. Commw. Ct. Oct. 30, 2013), is a tax case; worse, it’s a property tax case. You may have burst into hives just thinking about a property tax case, but it raises issues worth thinking about in the context of environmental litigation and managing liabilities in transactions.
Harley-Davidson addresses the question of how to value contaminated property when responsible parties have entered into an agreement to complete the clean-up. The trial court accepted the opinion of one of the taxing jurisdictions—the school district—that the property value ought not to be reduced by the cost of clean-up, but instead by a percentage to reflect “stigma.” The Commonwealth Court reversed and remanded.
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