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and-gravel property in turn forces us to estimate a number of
factors:
• total volume of minerals on the property,
• setbacks,
• size of work area,
• slope of pit walls,
• natural waste,
• rate of extraction,
• royalty rate,
• discount rate, and
• residual value.
A. Parties’ Positions
The Commissioner’s proposed value of $301,000 is based on
the work of its expert, Edwin Moritz. Moritz is a member of the
American Institute of Minerals Appraisers and the Society of
Petroleum Engineers, and has appeared as an expert witness on the
FMV of sand-and-gravel properties in other courts. He relies on
the Uniform Standards for Professional Appraisers Practice
(USPAP), the Uniform Appraisal Standards for Federal Land
Acquisitions (UASFLA), and caselaw for the proposition that the
comparable-sales approach is best. See Cloverport Sand & Gravel
Co. v. United States, 6 Cl. Ct. 178, 189 (1984). After searching
the deed records in the county where the Hamblen Road property is
located, Moritz identified five sales that he said were possibly
comparable. Moritz interviewed the buyers and sellers in each of
these transactions and concluded that three of them were in fact
comparable. He adjusted the prices involved to account for
various differences with the Hamblen Road property and then used
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