City of Corpus Christi v. Arnold

• Decision Date: 25 January 1968
• Docket Number: No. 357,357
• Citation: 424 S.W.2d 492
• Parties: CITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI, Appellant, v. Bernie ARNOLD et al., Appellees. . Corpus Christi
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 492

424 S.W.2d 492

CITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI, Appellant, v. Bernie ARNOLD et al., Appellees.

No. 357.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas.

Corpus Christi.

Jan. 25, 1968.

Rehearings Denied Feb. 29, 1968.

I. M. Singer, City Atty., Charles J. Macmanus, Asst. City Atty., Corpus Christi, for appellant.

Sidney Chandler, Corpus Christi, for appellees.

OPINION

GREEN, Chief Justice.

This suit involves certain problems of taxation arising out of the annexation by City of Corpus Christi of what we shall designate as the Flour Bluff area. For litigation concerning such annexation, see Pennington v. City of Corpus Christi, Tex.Civ.App., (1962), 363 S.W.2d 502, wr. ref. n.r.e., cert. denied, 375 U.S. 439, 84 S.Ct. 507, 11 L.Ed.2d 471; Winship v. City of Corpus Christi, Tex.Civ.App. (1963), 373 S.W.2d 844, wr. ref. n.r.e., cert. denied, 379 U.S. 646, 85 S.Ct. 611, 13 L.Ed.2d 551.

Appellees Mrs. Bernie Arnold and Jim J. Coffman, hereafter sometimes called plaintiffs, owning taxable property within such annexed area, filed suit against City of Corpus Christi, hereafter styled City, seeking judgment (1) removing cloud from title to their property, real and personal, located in such area by declaring void City's assessment and levy of taxes on such property for the taxable year 1963, and (2) for a partial refund for taxes for the years 1964, 1965, and 1966, allegedly paid City by plaintiffs under protest. City filed a cross-action for delinquent taxes for 1963.

After trial before the court without a jury, judgment was rendered for plaintiffs declaring the 1963 assessment void and against City on its cross-action, but denying plaintiffs' prayer for any relief as to the 1964, 1965, and 1966 taxes. City duly excepted to and has appealed from the portion of the judgment declaring void the 1963 assessment and denying it recovery of 1963 taxes. Plaintiffs duly excepted to the portion of the judgment concerning the 1964, 1965, and 1966 taxes, and on this appeal have raised their point by cross-assignment of error.

On request of City for findings of fact and conclusions of law on the phase of the case dealing with the 1963 taxes, the court prepared and filed the following:

'FINDINGS OF FACT

'No. 1. City of Corpus Christi was enjoined by temporary injunction from exercising municipal jurisdiction over the Flour Bluff area for the period of time from February, 1962, to October, 1963. ¹

'No. 2. For the year, 1963, the attempted assessment of Plaintiff taxpayers property and subsequent action by board of equalization was done without giving Plaintiff taxpayers an opportunity to be heard.

'No. 3. For the year, 1963, the attempted assessment of Plaintiff taxpayers property and subsequent action by board of equalization was done without giving Plaintiff taxpayers statutory notice or reasonable notice.'

'CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

'No. 1. Defendant, City of Corpus Christi, did not have authority to levy taxes on Plaintiffs' property for the year, 1963, because such property was not within its jurisdiction as of January 1, 1963. Vernon's Ann.Civ.St. art. 1043; City of Austin v. Butler, (Tex.Civ.App.), 40 S.W. 340; Texas City v. J. L. Martin Investment Company, et al, (Tex.Civ.App.), 222 S.W.2d 139.

'No. 2. For the year, 1963, attempted assessment of Plaintiffs' property by Defendant, City of Corpus Christi, and subsequent action by the board of equalization were void and invalid.'

The primary issue in Pennington, supra, was whether City had a prior right to annex the Flour Bluff area, or whether certain residents had the prior right to incorporate the same area as a separate town. The trial court upheld the rights of the City, and entered judgment validating the annexation as of August 5, 1961, which was affirmed on appeal. However, the same judgment continued in full force and effect until final adjudication of the cause on appeal the temporary injunction theretofore issued forbidding the City to provide municipal services to the area. (Additional Fact Finding No. 9, supra.)

City provided no municipal services to the area and made no effort to put into effect any of its taxing procedures as to property therein so long as this injunction remained in effect. After the mandate in the Pennington case had been filed with the district clerk, the trial judge on a hearing entered his order on October 1, 1963, declaring dissolved and no longer in effect the injunction against the City's exercise of municipal authority within the annexed area. The record is conflicting as to whether the City actually furnished any municipal services to the area prior to January, 1964, and there is no finding on such issue. However, promptly on the entry of the above order, City's tax assessor sent into the area his appraisers and commenced the preparations of the tax rolls for 1963 on taxable property in the annexed territory. On December 26, 1963, at the call of the City tax assessor, the members of the City Equalization Board approved and signed the tax rolls on property including that of plaintiffs within the annexed area.

Appellant City by its 2nd and 3rd points attack the court's judgment and first conclusion of law that City did not have authority to tax the property in 1963 because such property was not within City's jurisdiction as of January 1 of that year. We agree with City contentions that under the court's amended fact finding No . 9, and in view of the judgment in Pennington and the decision in Winship, supra, ² the annexed property was within the city limits of Corpus Christi on January 1, 1963, and was subject to taxation by proper and legal methods in the taxing process. The trial court cites Art. 1043, Vernon's Ann.Tex.Civ.St., and the City of Austin and Texas City cases, supra, as its authority for its first conclustion of law, supra. Art. 1043 provides that the rendition of property for taxation shall be as to such property as is within the city limits on January 1 of the taxable year; and the holdings in the City of Austin and Texas City cases, supra, were dependent on the fact that the properties there sought to be taxed were not in the city limits on January 1 of the year for which taxes were assessed. Under the facts of the present case, the cited cases are not in point, since the annexation was held to be valid since August, 1961, and the property sought to be taxed was within the city limits on January 1, 1963.

City further contends that because Corpus Christi is a home rule city operating under the provisions of Art. XI, § 5, Constitution of the State of Texas, Vernon's Ann.St., it may exercise all of the powers vested in home rule cities by the State Constitution and not expressly denied to it by the Legislature. State ex rel. Rose v. City of La Porte, Tex.Sup.Ct., 386 S.W.2d 782, 785; Forwood v. City of Taylor, 147 Tex. 161, 214 S.W.2d 282; Winship v. City of Corpus Christi, supra. Since the power to tax property within an area annexed after January 1 is not expressly denied to home rule cities by statute, City argues that it would be authorized to tax plaintiffs' property for 1963 regardless of whether it had jurisdiction over it on January 1, 1963. Neither of the cities in the two cases cited by the trial court in support of his 1st conclusion of law were home rule cities, and in the Texas City opinion, the court expressly stated that no question involving the taxing power of home rule cities was presented or decided in that case. However, in view of our above holding that the property sought to be taxed was within the city limits of Corpus Christi on January 1, 1963, and subject to taxation for that year, it is unnecessary that we pass on City's contention that as a home rule city, it was authorized to tax plaintiffs' property even though it may not have had jurisdiction over this property on January 1, 1963, as found by the trial court.

City's 1st, 4th, 6th and 7th points of error raise the proposition of whether the trial court was justified in concluding that because the assessment of plaintiffs' property and subsequent action by the Board of Equalization was done without giving plaintiffs an opportunity to be heard, and without giving statutory or reasonable notice (fact findings Nos. 2 and 3), such attempted assessment and the action of the board were void and invalid (conclusion of law No. 2). City says that under the provisions of its charter and the applicable laws, it was not required, once it was freed from the court's injunction, supra, to give plaintiffs as property owners within the city any notice of the actions of the tax assessor and the Board of Equalization, and that the findings of the trial court of no notice were immaterial to any issue in the cause. Because of the unusual relation existing between the City and the property owners caused by the prior litigation, the delay caused by the injunction in the taxing authorities taking action in 1963 until after the times fixed by the city charter for it to do the things necessary to be done in the taxing process and other factors, we do not agree, and we sustain the conclusion reached by the trial court.

Plaintiffs did not at any time in 1963 render their property to City for taxation, as property owners within the City were required to do under the city charter. Article VII, § 3 of the charter provided that in case of non-rendition, the tax assessor shall ascertain the value and place the property on the tax roll. After the property had been placed on the roll, it was the duty of the Board of Equalization to supervise the assessment of property; only in the event the board proposes to raise the value is there any provision for notice to the taxpayer. Section 4 of Article VII of the charter requires the Board of Equalization to examine and equalize the value of all property on the tax assessor-collector's lists or books, and to approve and return them in the manner provided by law, and to complete its labors not later than September first of each year.

In this...