Roberts v. Town of Southwest Harbor, 2004 ME 132

Summary

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the denial of John T. Roberts’s request for an abatement of his 2001 property taxes. The court held that an unjust-discrimination claim must demonstrate discriminatory valuation of the property as a whole, rather than disparity in the assessment of a single component, and concluded that the Board’s findings were sufficient for appellate review.

Holdings

1. A taxpayer seeking to prove unjust discrimination must demonstrate that the property as a whole was valued differently from comparable properties; a claim based only on one component of the total assessment is insufficient.
2. The Board's record contained findings sufficient for appellate review.

Questions Presented

1. Whether a taxpayer may establish unjust discrimination in property taxation by showing a disparity in the treatment of only one component of the property's assessment, without showing that the property's total assessment was discriminatory.
2. Whether the Board of Appeals made findings sufficient to permit meaningful judicial review.

Disposition

affirmed