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WEST PALM BEACH - The appraiser for the respondent in a Palm Beach divorce case advertised himself as an expert. His accreditations were many. My own paled by comparison. His specialty was appraising strictly Sotheby's material while I appraise just about everything from art and antiques to heavy construction equipment. He even seemed to have an advantage geographically being from Palm Beach vs. an appraiser who covers all of South Florida including some of the not so nice areas. My feeling was that we were up against a strong expert witness. -
At the mediation hearing we sat before the arbitrator. There was some light-hearted banter wherein the respondent's appraiser made certain to regale us with tales of his most recent high profile assignments in Palm Beach.
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There were no objections to the mediation agreement by either attorney. All that was left was to sort out the huge discrepancy in the value of the art, antiques and contents of the estate. Mediation should allow those involved to create an amicable resolution to items of contention among the personal property. However, the chasm between my appraised value of $750K and his $2M+ was quite deep.
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As each item was addressed, we heard of how the respondent's appraiser had seen similar items at luxury estate sales or auction houses and referred to his notes to buttress his opinions of their values. "Oh yes", he would exclaim, "the market for this particular item has skrocketed in recent years."
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When it came to my turn, I provided dated copies of seller listings as well as completed transactions on many items from Online auctions, sales forums and art and antique sites. There were also a few dealer quotes from the many telephone calls I made to those specializing in certain unique markets.
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Well, he harumphed that, while my documentation was most noticeably complete, that my quotes were probably skewed downward. He belittled the validity of my sources. Besides this and other proclamations, it was all he offered in response. A less than impressive expert witness as it turned out.
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The mediator gave the adverse attorney two weeks to dispute my findings. In addition, he held that if no pertinent rebuttal data was received, that all of the values I had placed on the personal property would be accepted.
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Two weeks later there was no response which meant that they conceded and accepted my valuations. Did their appraiser's negligence weaken their case?
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Experience is a valuable tool to an appraiser but without question, of more importance is the time one puts into thorough research and accurate reporting. I'll freely admit that the respondent's appraiser has seen a lot more art and high end furniture than I have. Everything right down to his cuff links implied that his valuations would probably be the ones accepted. But it was the less-experienced appraiser's clients who ended up victorious on this day. Hard work and perserverence won out. Making call after call to dealers who didn't have time to talk to me made all the difference. I must say that the mediator was impressed not only with the professionalism of my report but also by the great deal of time I'd obviously put into research.
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At St. Lucie Appraisal, we want your business and we're willing to work for it.
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