Appeal of Crescent Precision Products Inc.

• Citation: 516 P.2d 275
• Decision Date: 13 November 1973
• Docket Number: No. 44452,44452
• Parties: Appeal of CRESCENT PRECISION PRODUCTS, INC., from the Board of Tax Roll Corrections of Tulsa County, State of Oklahoma.
• Court: Supreme Court of Oklahoma

Page 275

516 P.2d 275

Appeal of CRESCENT PRECISION PRODUCTS, INC., from the Board

of Tax Roll Corrections of Tulsa County, State of Oklahoma.

No. 44452.

Supreme Court of Oklahoma.

Nov. 13, 1973.

Syllabus by the Court

A self-executing constitutional amendment relating to taxation, adopted after the commencement of the fiscal year ('the first day of July in each year, unless otherwise provided by law.' Article X, sec. 1, Oklahoma Constitution) does not affect the taxable status of property for the calendar year in which the Constitutional amendment was adopted, absent an express provision to the contrary.

Appeal from the District Court of Tulsa County; Phillips Breckenridge, Jr., Trial Judge.

Petition of Crescent Precision Products, Inc. for certiorari for the review of a judgment of the Court of Appeals, Division No. 1, affirming the judgment of the District Court of Tulsa County which in effect sustained the action of the Tulsa County Board of Tax Roll Corrections in refusing to rule that certain of petitioner's property was non-taxable for the tax year 1968. Certiorari granted; judgment of Court of Appeals, Div. No. 1 affirming judgment of District Court, in turn affirmed.

Jones, Givens, Brett, Gotcher & Doyle, Tulsa, for appellant.

S. M. Fallis, Dist. Atty., and Marvin E. Spears, Asst. Dist. Atty., Tulsa, for appellee.

WILLIAMS, Vice Chief Justice.

This is an appeal by Crescent Precision Products, Inc., from a judgment of the District Court of Tulsa County which in effect sustained the action of the Tulsa County Board of Tax Roll Corrections in refusing to give Crescent the benefit of the second clause of Article X, § 6A, Oklahoma Constitution, in the computation of Crescent' § 1968 ad valorem taxes. That clause is as follows:

'* * * provided, that goods, wares and merchandise, whether or not moving on through rates, shall be deemed to move in interstate commerce, and not subject to taxation in this State if not detained more than nine (9) months where such goods, wares and merchandise are so held for assembly, storage, manufacturing, processing or fabricating purposes; * * *'.

This section of our Constitution was adopted by the people as a constitutional amendment on September 17, 1968.

In a related case recently decided, In the Matter of the Assessment of, etc., Certain Property owned by Crescent Precision Products, Inc., Okl., 514 P.2d 933, tried under a stipulation of facts, this clause was held applicable in the computation of Cresent' § 1969 taxes. The additional question presented in the case now before us, tried under a similar stipulation, is whether it is also applicable in the computation of Crescent's 1968 taxes. For a description of Crescent's method of doing business, see the opinion in the related case.

In the case from which the present appeal arose, the trial court held that Article X, § 6A, Oklahoma Constitution, did not become effective until the tax year 1969 and denied Crescent any relief as to its 1968 taxes. Upon appeal, the matter was assigned for decision to the Court of Appeals, Div. No. 1, which, being of the view that Crescent's property did not qualify under the clause in any event, did not reach the additional question here presented. The matter is now before this Court on petition for certiorari.

A constitutional provision is self-executing when it can be given effect without the aid of legislation and there is nothing to indicate that legislation is contemplated to render it operative, and when there is a manifest intention that it should go into immediate effect, and no ancillary legislation is necessary to the enjoyment of a right given, or the enforcement of a duty imposed. 16 C.J.S. Constitutional Law § 48; Latting v. Cordell, 197 Okl. 369, 172 P.2d 397, 399; 16 Am.Jur.2d Constitutional Law, § 94, 51 Am.Jur. Taxation, § 500. The presumption is that constitutional provisions are...