New Kent judge rejects assessments attack tactic

By News in Brief
Published: August 25, 2008

A second Virginia circuit judge has rejected an effort by property owners upset with their assessments to use a little-known Virginia law to draft their commonwealth’s attorneys to press their case.

Property owners had filed petitions with commonwealth’s attorney C. Linwood Gregory in New Kent County and Gary A. Agar in Accomack County under Code § 58.1-3003 that required them to appeal an “order for the imposition of taxes” to circuit court.
New Kent Circuit Judge Thomas B. Hoover ruled last week, as Accomack Circuit Judge Glen Tyler had a week earlier, that the procedure cannot be used as a general challenge to a county-wide reassessment.

The law applies to errors in the tax levy imposed by a local governing body and not to the assessment process, Hoover and Tyler ruled.

Gregory and Agar handled the petition very differently. Agar appointed an assistant, Matthew C. Brenner, to challenge the assessment, while Gregory asked to withdraw after filing the petition required by state law. He said he could not make a good faith argument for the legal validity of the challenge.


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