Professional Negligence Law Reporter

Boesiger v. Desert Appraisals, LLC, 2019 WL 2871091 (Nev. July 3, 2019).

The Nevada Supreme Court held that a real estate appraisal company and its appraiser were not liable to a couple alleging that their negligent reliance on a misleading appraisal report caused them to purchase their home for an inflated price.

James and Maria Boesiger bought a home in Las Vegas and took out a mortgage on the property. The mortgage company retained Desert Appraisals, LLC, whose appraiser, Travis Gliko, performed an appraisal on the property. Gliko’s report explicitly noted a discrepancy between his estimate of the home’s square footage compared to the square footage reported by the county assessor’s office. After trying to refinance a year later, the Boesigers became aware of this discrepancy.

They sued Desert Appraisals and Gliko, alleging professional negligence, among other claims. The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants’ reliance on incorrect data for the property resulted in an overvalued appraisal and caused them to overpay for their home. The defendants moved successfully for summary judgment.

Affirming, the state high court found that generally, where alleged harm is not within a layperson’s common knowledge, the applicable standard of care must be established through expert testimony. Citing case law, the court added that expert testimony is usually required in establishing the standard of care applicable to the performance of a real estate appraisal. Here, the court said, the plaintiffs’ designated expert was later withdrawn and never replaced. The court rejected the plaintiffs’ argument that real estate appraisals are within the common knowledge of laypersons, concluding that the absence of a plaintiff expert on this issue prevents the plaintiffshere from establishing the element of duty in their claim for professional negligence. Consequently, summary judgment was proper.