Editor's note: This article has been corrected to reflect a statement by attorney Robert Frycklund regarding the board's position on the matter.

A bench trial scheduled for Wednesday in Panther Valley School District’s civil lawsuit against the Carbon County Board of Assessment Appeals was postponed after both sides agreed the matter would be more suited to oral arguments or written briefs.

Panther Valley filed the complaint in March, calling into question the board’s handling of assessment appeals, specifically their use of the Common Level Ratio in determining property values.

The CLR used by the board during assessment hearings is the one published on July 1 of each year, district attorney Robert Yurchak argued, regardless of when the actual appeal was filed. This practice, according to the district, leads to inconsistencies in property value assessments and unfairly impacts those filing appeals before the July 1 publication date.

“This practice is prejudicial to the appellant,” the district’s complaint states. “Using a subsequently published CLR that was not even in existence when the appeal was filed creates a big problem in deciding which properties to appeal since some property values will go up and some will go down with the implementation of a CLR published after the appeal date.”

The district is asking Carbon County Court to “review and interpret the proper use of the Common Level Ratio developed by the State Tax Equalization Board as to when it is to be applied to tax assessment appeals in Carbon County.”

“There is no standard practice on how to implement the CLR across Pennsylvania,” the district’s filing reads.

Yurchak pointed to other counties like Westmoreland and Schuylkill that follow different procedures, using the CLR applicable at the time of the appeal. Schuylkill County, for example, applies the previous year’s CLR for any appeals filed before Sept. 1 of the current year.

According to the pretrial memorandum filed by the Carbon County Board of Assessment Appeals on Oct. 15, the board has maintained that “Sections 8802 and 8844(e)(2) of the Consolidated County Assessment Law clearly direct the board to apply the CLR that was last published prior to the tax year on appeal.”

Robert Frycklund, attorney for the appeals board, said that the most recently-published CLR must be applied.

“The Pennsylvania Consolidated County Assessment Law permits property owners and taxing districts (e.g., the Panther Valley School District) to prospectively file an appeal from a real estate tax assessment for the following tax year, 2025 (the “year under appeal”), anytime between the one-year period from Sept. 2, 2023 to Sept. 1, 2024,” Frycklund said in an email.

“When those year 2025 appeals were heard by the board in the fall of 2024, typically from September to October, the board had a duty to determine the fair market value of the property as of the date the appeal was filed. But in order to determine the resulting tax assessment, the law requires the board to apply the most recently-published CLR.”

In place of the bench trial scheduled for Wednesday morning, Carbon County Common Pleas Judge Steven Serfass set a 9 a.m. conference to be held in his chambers to discuss next steps.