Tax Court: Racetrack’s 2020 tax assessment upheld after failure to appear

A man who failed to appear at two telephonic hearings for the appeal of his racetrack’s 2020 property tax assessment did not convince the Indiana Tax Court that a final determination against him should be overturned.

Michael Daugherty, who owns Daugherty Real Estate Holdings LLC, initiated an appeal with the Benton County assessor in March 2020 after he disagreed with the 2020 valuation of his racetrack located in Boswell, Indiana.

Daugherty’s racetrack was originally assessed at $457,900, but later reduced to $315,200 after he brought the issue before the Benton County Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals. Still unsatisfied, he raised the issue with the Indiana Board of Tax Review, which held a telephonic hearing, rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in January 2021.

But Daugherty didn’t call in to the hearing and later asserted he was unaware it had been rescheduled. The meeting was again rescheduled, but Daugherty failed to appear telephonically at that hearing, as well.

The Indiana board then issued its final determination denying Daugherty’s appeal, finding that it would not “make the case for a petitioner” and that Daughtery “failed to offer any evidence or argument” in support of his case. It then denied a subsequent rehearing request from Daugherty.

Daugherty appealed to the Indiana Tax Court, which affirmed the final determination in Michael Daugherty v. Benton County Assessor, Kelly Balensiefer, 21T-TA-26.

The Tax Court found unpersuasive Daugherty’s arguments that the final determination must be reversed because the Indiana board failed to conduct a hearing and, to the extent that it did, violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“The record evidence in this case demonstrates that the Indiana Board conducted two hearings on Daugherty’s appeal, but he did not appear for either one of them. Pursuant to the Indiana Board’s duly promulgated regulations that were in effect at the time of those two hearings, the failure of a party to appear at a hearing is a proper basis to dismiss an appeal,” Judge Martha Blood Wentworth wrote.

As for the alleged ADA violation, Wentworth wrote that although Daugherty claimed the Indiana board failed to make reasonable accommodations for him to participate in the hearing, there was no evidence in the record that he was disabled or even requested accommodation.

“Accordingly, the Indiana Board’s final determination will not be reversed on this basis either,” she concluded. “… For the foregoing reasons, Daugherty has not demonstrated that the Indiana Board’s final determination is erroneous.”