City of Sweetwater v. Biard Development Co.
| Decision Date | 09 May 1918 |
| Docket Number | (No. 860.) |
| Citation | 203 S.W. 801 |
| Parties | CITY OF SWEETWATER et al. v. BIARD DEVELOPMENT CO. |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
Appeal from District Court, Nolan County; W. W. Beall, Judge.
Suit by the Biard Development Company against the City of Sweetwater and others. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendants appeal. Affirmed.
Geo. T. Wilson and A. S. Mauzey, both of Sweetwater, for appellants. Jno. J. Ford, of Sweetwater, for appellee.
Statement of Case.
This suit was filed by appellee seeking an injunction to restrain the city of Sweetwater, and certain of its officers, from collecting certain taxes. It was alleged that the imposition of said taxes was an arbitrary and illegal discrimination against appellee by said city, acting through its board of equalization.
Appellee averred that on January 1, 1916, it was the owner of certain lots in the Snell Park addition to the city of Sweetwater, and through its proper officer made a regular rendition of said lots for taxation for said year, and rendered same at their fair, reasonable, and intrinsic value; the same having no market value; that afterwards the board of equalization of the city arbitrarily discriminated against plaintiff and raised the valuation of said lots from $11,010 as rendered to $18,325.
It was further averred that the board of equalization equalized and assessed all property in Sweetwater on the basis of or less than its cash market value, where it had a market value, and where it had no such value, then it was assessed at or less than its reasonable intrinsic value; that the action of the board of equalization in fixing and placing the value of plaintiff's property far in excess of its reasonable, fair, and intrinsic value was an illegal and arbitrary discrimination against plaintiff, and a legal fraud upon it, and was not in fact an equalization of plaintiff's property with other property in the city, but was an intentional and arbitrary assessment of plaintiff's property at a value of about two-fifths above the proportionate value fixed on other property in the city, in violation of article 8, § 1, and article 1, § 19, of the Constitution of Texas and section 1 of the fourteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution.
The case was submitted to a jury upon special issues. The facts found are as follows: That the sum of $11,010 at which plaintiff rendered its lots was not the full, true cash value thereof on January 1, 1916; that the true, full cash value thereof at said time was $13,743.75; that the valuation of $18,325 placed thereon for said year by the board of equalization was grossly excessive; that said board, in passing upon and raising the value of plaintiff's lots, placed a per cent. value thereon grossly in excess of 80 per cent. of their true cash value, and that the raise in the valuation of plaintiff's lots was so grossly excessive as to work a fraud on plaintiff in its property rights.
In addition to the facts found by the jury it is shown by the undisputed evidence that the board of equalization in equalizing values assessed property upon the basis of 75 per cent. of its market value, where it had such value, and, if it had no such value, then upon the basis of 75 per cent. of its real and intrinsic value.
The refusal of a peremptory instruction in defendant's favor is assigned as error. The right to an injunction to restrain the collection of a tax illegal by virtue of an arbitrary discrimination against the taxpayer in property valuations is well settled. The question has been often before the courts of this state, and it will serve no purpose to review the authorities. The right has been recognized and enforced in the following cases: Lively v. Railway Co., 102 Tex. 545, 120 S. W. 852; Brown v. Bank, 175 S. W. 1122; Johnson v. Holland, 17 Tex. Civ. App. 210, 43 S. W. 71; Linz v. City of Sherman, 62 S. W. 71.
Appellant does not question the correctness of the rule announced, but contends there is no evidence of an arbitrary discrimination against appellee by the board of...
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