A self-employed real estate appraiser with four years of experience
performing appraisals for lending institutions and over one thousand tax
appeals at the local and state level was proffered as an expert for the
debtor in a § 505 adversary proceeding against the state Department of
Revenue over the real estate tax assessment of the debtor’s motel. The
trial court found that the witness’s educational background consisted of a
graduate degree in theology, no scholarly training in the fields of taxes,
statistics or real estate and that the majority of his appraisal work had been
in the area of residential property. The court held he did not qualify as an
expert under Rule 702. However, the court allowed him to testify as a lay
witness under Rule 701 based upon his investigation of assessments made
by the DOR upon the debtor’s property as well as eighteen parcels of
commercial real estate sold in the debtor’s county during the relevant time frame. Lipetzky v. Dept. of Revenue of the State of Montana (In re Lipetzky), 66 B.R. 648, 650-51 (Bankr. D. Mont. 1986).
I don't have faith in the Justice System!
