Also known as: appraise · appraises · appraised · appraising · appraisals · appraisement · appraisements · appraiser · appraisers
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
2 senses
A determination of the fair price or market value of property or an interest. The process produces an estimate used to measure loss, set loan terms, or resolve damage claims.
An evaluative judgment of a situation, necessity, or set of factors. The assessment weighs competing considerations to decide whether conduct is justified or a remedy is appropriate.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
A determination of the fair price or market value of property or an interest. The process produces an estimate used to measure loss, set loan terms, or resolve damage claims.
Aurora Biotech appraises homes in a predominantly Latino neighborhood using an algorithm that assigns lower values solely because of the residents' national origin. A Latino buyer denied a loan based on the appraisal sues under fair housing law because the statute prohibits discrimination in the appraising of residential real property.
Alan Ackerman's warehouse burns. The insurer and Ackerman disagree on the amount of loss. They appoint appraisers who determine the actual cash value of the destroyed property, which then fixes the insurer's payment obligation under the policy.
In 1944 the United States indicted the South-Eastern Underwriters Association, its nearly 200 member stock fire insurance companies, and 27 individuals in federal district court. The indictment charged two conspiracies under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act: one to restrain interstate trade by fixing arbitrary and non-competitive premium rates and agents' commissions on fire and allied lines of insurance in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, and a second to monopolize that trade in the same states. The member companies controlled 90 percent of the fire insurance and allied lines sold by stock companies in those six states. The conspiracies operated through continuing agreements effectuated by the association, including boycotts, coercion, and intimidation that cut non-members off from reinsurance, disparaged their services, punished independent agents who represented them, and threatened customers who bought from them. The District Court sustained a demurrer to the indictment on the ground that the business of insurance is not commerce. The case came to the Supreme Court on direct appeal by the Government from the District Court's judgment dismissing the indictment under the Criminal Appeals Act. The indictment described the full range of insurance activities, including negotiations before contract execution and the transactions necessary to perform the contracts, all of which formed a single continuous chain many of which moved across state lines. Of the nearly 200 combining companies only 18 maintained home offices in one of the six states; 127 were headquartered in New York, Pennsylvania, or Connecticut. Between 1931 and 1941 local agents in the six states collected $488,000,000 in premiums, most of which was transmitted to out-of-state home offices, while $215,000,000 in losses was paid by checks or drafts sent from those home offices to local agents for delivery to policyholders. Local agents solicited prospects, used policy forms supplied by home offices, and reported regularly by mail, telephone, or telegraph; special traveling agents supervised local operations. The policies covered not only fixed local property but also steamboats, tugs, ferries, shipyards, warehouses, terminals, trucks, buses, railroad equipment, and movable goods carried in interstate and foreign commerce. The modern insurance business held assets exceeding $37,000,000,000 and collected annual premiums exceeding $6,000,000,000. Premiums flowed from policyholders in every state into companies concentrated in eastern financial centers for investment, and payments on policies flowed back to the many states where policyholders resided, creating a continuous stream of interstate collections, payments, documents, and communications essential to negotiation and performance of the contracts.
3 common questions
Yes. Section 3605(b)(2) expressly includes the appraising of residential real property among covered residential real estate-related transactions. Discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, handicap, or familial status in such appraisals is unlawful.
When a tortious act both harms property and confers a special benefit on the same interest, courts may offset the value of the benefit against damages to the extent equity permits. Post-harm appraisals that reveal an increase in value are therefore relevant to the mitigation calculation.
An evaluative judgment of a situation, necessity, or set of factors. The assessment weighs competing considerations to decide whether conduct is justified or a remedy is appropriate.
Andre Antoine sets a controlled burn on his land to clear brush but fails to check wind forecasts. When the fire spreads toward a neighbor's home, Andre breaks into a locked shed to retrieve a pump that stops the spread. Because Andre was reckless in appraising the need for the break-in, the justification defense is unavailable in his prosecution for criminal trespass.
Anchor Bank seeks an injunction to stop a neighboring factory from emitting pollutants that damage its branch building. The court performs a comparative appraisal of the factors in section 936, including the nature of the bank's property interest and the relative adequacy of damages versus injunctive relief, before deciding whether to grant the injunction.
Aaron Adams secretly spikes Alexis Archer's drink with a drug that substantially impairs her ability to appraise the nature of her conduct. When Adams then has intercourse with her, the impairment supplies the element that makes the act rape under the statute.
Artemis Logistics sues to enjoin a competitor's repeated trespass across its loading dock. The court conducts a comparative appraisal of all relevant factors listed in section 936, including the nature of the interest to be protected and the relative hardships, to decide whether an injunction is the appropriate remedy.
2 common questions
Under Model Penal Code section 3.02(2), the justification is unavailable if the actor was reckless or negligent in appraising the necessity for the conduct. The prosecution may then proceed on any offense for which recklessness or negligence suffices for culpability.
Restatement (Second) of Torts section 933(1) provides that the availability of an injunction depends on a comparative appraisal of the factors listed in section 936. Those factors include the nature of the interest to be protected, the relative adequacy of other remedies, and the relative hardships to the parties.
Yes. When waste reduces the property's value and worsens the loan-to-value ratio, the mortgagee may seek an injunction or damages calibrated to the impairment. An appraiser's conclusion that value has declined supplies evidence of the impairment.