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 cleanup. 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 cleanup, but instead by a percentage to reflect “stigma.” The Commonwealth Court reversed and remanded.
