A federal appeals panel has ordered a judge to let taxpayers continue to sue Cook County over its allegedly unfair property assessment practices, saying the federal judge overreached in halting the case to let the county ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the matter.
The Sept. 10 ruling was authored by Circuit Judges Joel Flaum, David Hamilton and Amy Barrett, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, which sits in Chicago. The ruling favored six property owners in their action against Cook County, County Treasurer Maria Pappas and former County Assessor Joseph Berrios.
Plaintiffs are A.F. Moore & Associates, J. Emil Anderson & Son, Prime Realty Group Trust, American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, Erling Eide, Fox Valley/River Oaks Partnership and Simon Property Group.
Former Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios
Plaintiffs brought the suit in 2018 in federal district court, after years of unsuccessfully seeking tax relief in Cook County Circuit Court. They said they climbed to the federal level because state law and state and county rules make it almost impossible to appeal assessments, violating their constitutional rights.
Specifically, plaintiffs alleged Berrios distorted their property assessments, then invoked state law to shield the assessor's office from legal challenges to the assessments. Plaintiffs claimed the improper assessments jacked up their tax bills by tens of millions of dollars.
District Judge Charles Kocoras threw out the suit, saying the U.S. Tax Injunction Act bars federal courts from dealing with property tax disputes. Kocoras said he believed plaintiffs still had an "adequate state-court remedy."
On appeal, however, the Seventh Circuit ruled in January that Kocaras was wrong, because the state's tax objection procedures actually made it all but impossible for taxpayers to raise constitutional claims in state court. The suit qualified for federal court, the appeals judges said.
The Seventh Circuit sent the case back to Kocoras for further proceedings.
However, Kocoras then granted a motion by the county to suspend the case to give the county a chance to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to address the matter. Plaintiffs appealed Kocoras' latest action.
The appeals panel noted Kocoras does not have discretion to put the suit on hold.
"The court [Kocoras] may believe and even express its belief that our reasoning was flawed, yet it must execute our mandate nevertheless," the three appellate judges said.
The appellate panel noted it denied the county's motion, before the county succeeded with it before Kocoras, because the panel believed it is unlikely the Supreme Court will take up the case. Among the reasons given by Kocoras for granting the motion, he said the panel had rejected the motion without explanation. However, the panel pointed out: "An order is an order regardless whether it contains an explanation."
In addition, Kocoras himself did not explain why the county deserved the stay, the panel noted.
The panel observed Kocoras' action violated the rule that requires lower courts obey higher courts.
"The defendants’ motion obligated the district court, which had been reversed by a reviewing court, to weigh the likelihood that it might be later vindicated by our own reversal. That analysis is only a step removed from a court declaring that it was right all along and entering the judgment just reversed," the panel found.
Plaintiffs have been represented by O’Keefe Lyons & Hynes, of Chicago, and the Chicago firm of Dentons US.
The county and Pappas have been defended by the office of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx
Berrios has been defended by Hinshaw & Culbertson, of Chicago.
Published reports have alleged the assessor's office, under Berrios, had engaged in past years in discriminatory and unequal assessments.The disparities were abetted by an appeals process that favored property owners who could hire politically connected lawyers to appeal their tax bills, according to the reports.
Berrios was defeated by current Assessor Fritz Kaegi, who has instituted reforms since taking office, based on those allegations of past practices of discrimination.
The assessment and appeal system helped the law practice of indicted Chicago Ald. Ed Burke, who is accused by federal prosecutors of using his office to shake down property owners to hire his firm to handle their tax appeals.
Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan's Chicago law firm has also focused on property tax appeals.