Square 345 Associates Ltd. Partnership v. District of Columbia

My colleagues in the majority affirm the trial judge’s decision, which for the most part sustains the valuation of the subject property by the Department of Finance and Revenue (DFR), even though

1. on January 1, 1988, the date on which the assessor, Troy Davis, assessed the value of the property for the year 1989 at $38,760,980, Davis was unaware of the fact that the property had been sold at arm’s length, less than thirteen months earlier, for $22,000,000;

2. the trial judge excluded evidence showing that in an assessment of the property conducted for the second half of the year 1988, dated…