Supreme Court rules against investor in county land sale

Friday, Nov. 19, 2004 | 9:47 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a real estate investor in Las Vegas should not be allowed to take advantage of a mistake by Clark County.

The investor's lawsuit was over the county's auctioning of two parcels of land not needed for construction of the Desert Inn Road Arterial.

The court upheld District Judge Ronald Parraguirre, who ordered the deed of the property should reflect 0.49 acre rather than 0.92 acre. It also ordered Clark County to refund extra property taxes paid by Neil Ohriner, who purchased the property for $340,000.

In advertising the sale, Clark County put the legal description of the two parcels to be sold as encompassing 0.92 acre, rather than the intended 0.49 acre. Realizing the mistake, Ohriner submitted the winning bid at public auction for the parcels about two blocks east of Valley View Boulevard that also included an eight-unit warehouse.

The court said after the sale Clark County taxed Ohriner $1 million on one parcel and $83,310 on the other parcel, using the mistaken description. Ohriner brought the error to the attention of the county.

The county gave Ohriner two options: He would correct the descriptions on the deed or he could rescind the contract for the full purchase price plus taxes. Ohriner refused both.

The Supreme Court said "that although Ohriner knew before purchasing the property that the legal description was wrong, he intended to take advantage of the county's error by using it as a 'bargaining chip' if the county opposed his application for an adult use permit on the property.

"In fact, Ohriner alerted the county to its mistake when he encountered parking space problems for his intended use of the property," the court said.

Ohriner argued that if the description on the property deed was to be changed to reflect 0.49 acre, then the purchase price and property taxes should have been abated.

The court ordered a partial refund of the property tax and said, "Because Ohriner did not and will not benefit from the use of the entire parcels, he should not be required to pay substantially larger tax bills "

Ohriner also argued that the a portion of the purchase price should be refunded because the recision of the property was "an unconstitutional taking for a public use without just compensation."

The court said the property was appraised at $190,000 and Ohriner did not join the bidding until the $216,000 level. When everybody stopped bidding, Ohriner and Perry Miscelli continued to bid against each other. Miscelli's last bid was for $335,000. He was representing the adjoining property owner and did not know about land description error.

After Ohriner purchased the property, he turned the deed over to Nolm LLC, which he owned.