Broadcasts.com - "September 2019 - Virginia International Gateway Inc v City of Portsmouth" (Oral Arguments of the Supreme Court of Virginia)

Published: Sept. 29, 2019, 7:33 p.m.

This podcast is provided by Ben Glass and Steve Emmert

Granted Appeal Summary

Case

VIRGINIA INTERNATIONAL GATEWAY, INC. v. CITY OF PORTSMOUTH (Record Number 180810)

From

From the Circuit Court of the City of Portsmouth; J. Hawks, Judge.

Counsel

Johan Conrod, Jr. and Lauren Tallent Rogers (Kaufman & Canoles, P.C.) for appellant.

Solomon H. Ashby, Jr. (City Attorney) and Andrew R. McRoberts, Debra L. Mallory, and David C. Tait (Sands Anderson PC) for appellee.

Assignments of Error

The Circuit Court for the City of Portsmouth (the “Trial Court”) erred in dismissing Virginia International Gateway, Inc.’s (“VIG”) challenge to its real property tax assessment that was assessed by the City of Portsmouth, Virginia (“the City”) for the 2015-2016 tax year.

The Trial Court erred in disqualifying and refusing to credit the testimony of VIG’s appraisal expert. The trial court refused to credit the testimony because, even though the appraiser held a Virginia appraiser's license for 2016 when he prepared his appraisal, he was not licensed in 2017 at the time of his trial testimony.

The Trial Court erred in failing to address or give any weight to the testimony of VIG’s broker expert who opined at trial regarding the fair market value of the Ship to Shore Cranes (which the City assessed as real property).

The Trial Court erred by rejecting VIG’s evidence of the fair market value of VIG’s personal property based on the Trial Court’s conclusion that transportation costs should not be a consideration for fair market value.