Cummings v. Shorey

• Decision Date: 16 November 2000
• Docket Number: No. 99-117-Appeal.,99-117-Appeal.
• Citation: 761 A.2d 680
• Parties: Carol A. CUMMINGS v. William H. SHOREY, in his capacity as Tax Assessor for the Town of Middletown.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

761 A.2d 680

Carol A. CUMMINGS v. William H. SHOREY, in his capacity as Tax Assessor for the Town of Middletown.

No. 99-117-Appeal.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

November 16, 2000.

Present WEISBERGER, C.J., LEDERBERG, BOURCIER, and GOLDBERG, JJ.

Joseph R. Palumbo, Jr., Middletown, For plaintiff.

Turner C. Scott, For defendant.

OPINION

LEDERBERG, Justice.

The plaintiff, Carol A. Cummings, appealed to the Rhode Island Supreme Court after her dispute over real estate taxes resulted in a judgment in favor of William H. Shorey (tax assessor or defendant), in his capacity as tax assessor of Middletown, Rhode Island. The plaintiff claimed that taxes on her property had been assessed illegally and that the revaluation was either not certified pursuant to law or was certified late, and she sought a refund of all taxes collected. We disagree and affirm the judgment.

Facts and Procedural History

The plaintiff owns several parcels of ratable real estate in the Town of Middletown, Rhode Island. In the course of the town's revaluation of all taxable real estate, plaintiff initially sought relief from the Middletown Board of Tax Appeals (board) for what she alleged was an illegal assessment of herproperties. The plaintiff stipulated that the board granted her some reduction in assessments, but she was afforded no relief on the alleged illegal tax assessment process. The plaintiff filed tax appeals under G.L. 1956 § 44-5-26 each year between 1991 and 1995, and the five separate appeals were consolidated in the Superior Court. In those appeals, plaintiff contended that "the Town's December 31, 1989 revaluation and the resultant assessment against property in the Town exceeded its full and fair cash value in violation of G.L. § 44-5-11," and she sought a refund of all taxes collected. Further, she alleged that the tax assessor violated § 44-5-11(b) by not certifying the revaluation and also violated § 44-5-22 by certifying the tax roll late for the years 1989 through 1993.

In an agreed statement of facts, both parties stipulated the following relevant facts: In 1989, Middletown's tax assessor "conducted a townwide revaluation of all taxable real estate pursuant to R.I.G.L. § 44-5-11 which was implemented with the December 31, 1989 assessment." Although defendant was directed by § 44-5-11(b) to certify in writing to the State of Rhode Island that the revaluation was completed, he did not perform this act. He did, however, in correspondence with the State of Rhode Island Department of Administration, explain that his "office [did] not consider the process to be complete until all of the board of review hearings ha[d] been dealt with." In addition, for each December 31st tax assessment for the years 1989 through 1993, the tax assessor's certification of the tax roll occurred well after the June 15 date required by § 44-5-22.¹ Significantly, plaintiff stipulatedthat the valuations of her property were "the true and accurate valuations of said property for the respective tax years shown."

The trial justice found that by acknowledging that her property was accurately valuated at its full and fair cash value, plaintiff in essence not only approved the assigned values but also affirmed the process itself and, in so doing, failed to satisfy her burden of proving that her property was overassessed or that the tax assessor overassessed plaintiff's property illegally or that defendant otherwise acted illegally.

The trial justice also found that, although the language of the tax statute in the instant case directed that the tax assessor certify in writing to the Department of Administration the completion of the revaluation, the General Assembly had not provided a remedy in the event the certification was filed late or was not filed at all. In the absence of an explicit statutory remedy for a late certification, especially given that a remedy was provided under § 44-5-26 in the event that the tax was illegally assessed or collected, the trial justice concluded that the omission of a remedy was deliberate and that no private remedy was available to plaintiff. The trial justice also found that the remedy under § 44-5-26 could not be applied to render illegal a late filing of a tax assessment.

In considering the public policy effects of his ruling, the trial justice took judicial notice that it was not unusual for cities and towns to file late tax assessments, and consequently, that entitling individuals to a full refund for a community's tardy certification of tax assessments — the remedy plaintiff sought — would result in chaos. Therefore he entered judgment for defendant. The plaintiff appealed and has raised the following issues before this Court: (1) whether the revaluation was void because the tax assessor failed to comply with the certification requirements of § 44-5-11(b), (2) whether the tax levies were illegal because the tax assessor failed to certify the tax rolls by the datespecified in § 44-5-22, and (3) whether the tax assessments were illegal because they were in excess of 100 percent of the ratable properties' full and fair cash value. Before addressing these issues, we first discuss whether plaintiff had standing to bring these matters before the Court, given her stipulation that the valuation of her properties was accurate.

Standard of Review

The issue of whether plaintiff had standing to bring her appeal is a mixed question of law and fact. "A trial justice's findings on mixed questions of law and fact are generally entitled to the same deference as the justice's findings of fact. Hawkins v. Town of Foster, 708 A.2d 178, 182 (R.I.1998). But, when those mixed questions of law and fact impact constitutional matters, we shall review the findings de novo, pursuant to Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690, 116 S.Ct.1657, 134 L.Ed.2d 911 (1996). See Foley v. Osborne Court Condominium, 724 A.2d 436, 439 (R.I.1999)

(applying the Ornelas standard to a civil case)." Palazzolo v. State, 746 A.2d 707, 711 (R.I.2000).

Our determination of whether the revaluations were void or illegal and whether a private remedy was provided by the General Assembly rests on a question of statutory construction. "[I]t is well settled that when the language of a statute is clear and unambiguous, this Court must interpret the statute literally and must give the words of the statute their plain and ordinary meanings." State v. Flores, 714 A.2d 581, 583 (R.I.1998) (quoting Accent Store Design, Inc. v. Marathon House, Inc., 674 A.2d 1223, 1226 (R.I.1996)). "Moreover, when we examine an unambiguous statute, `there is no room for statutory construction and we must apply the statute as written.'" State v. DiCicco, 707 A.2d 251, 253 (R.I.1998) (quoting In re Denisewich, 643 A.2d 1194, 1197 (R.I.1994)). If statutory provisions appear unclear or ambiguous, however, we shall examine the entire statute to ascertain the intent and purpose of the Legislature. DiCicco, 707 A.2d at 253 n. 1.

Standing

Turning first to the issue of standing, this Court has held that a plaintiff has standing when "`the plaintiff alleges that the challenged action has caused him [or her] injury in fact, economic or otherwise.'" Rhode Island Ophthalmological Society v. Cannon, 113 R.I. 16, 22, 317 A.2d 124, 128 (1974). In making this determination, "`[t]he line is not between a substantial injury and an insubstantial injury. The line is between injury and no injury.'" Matunuck Beach Hotel, Inc. v. Sheldon, 121 R.I. 386, 396, 399 A.2d 489, 494 (1979). We have also held that a taxpayer has standing if the individual has a "personal stake beyond that shared by all other members of the public at large or the taxpayers of the town." West Warwick School Committee v. Souliere, 626 A.2d 1280, 1284 (R.I.1993). Even if the requirement for standing has not been met, however, on rare occasions this Court has allowed the case to proceed when substantial public interest is at stake. See, e.g., Burns v. Sundlun, 617 A.2d 114, 116 (R.I.1992)

(noting that when the plaintiff raised "a question of statutory interpretation of great importance to citizens in localities that could become home to gambling facilities seeking to simulcast and invite wagering on out-of-state events," the court conferred standing, although the plaintiff failed to prove an injury in fact resulting from the challenged statute).

The statutory scheme set forth in § 44-5-26 allows an individual plaintiff to protest his or her own assessment as plaintiff has done here, but the statute does not permit one taxpayer to bring, in essence, a class action challenge to the entire taxation structure of a municipality. Moreover, the statutory remedy for relief from an alleged illegal assessment of taxes requires that a plaintiff constitute an "aggrieved person." Here, plaintiff stipulated that overvaluation of her specific property was not at issue. It follows that once plaintiff stipulated that the revaluation of her property was accurate, the only adverse effect she allegedly suffered was the tax assessor's habitual tardiness in certifying the tax roll and the revaluation. The tardiness arguably produced a generalized grievance, common to all taxpayers in the town, a grievance that did not endow plaintiff with standing to contest the general outcome of the revaluations, absent any claim that the revaluation of her property was inaccurate. West Warwick School Committee, 626 A.2d at 1284.

Remedy Under Section 44-5-26

With respect to plaintiff's claim that her properties were illegally assessed, the trial justice found that no remedy was available for a town's late or failed certification under § 44-5-26, the statutory remedy for relief from assessment. We have addressed this issue in S.S. Kresge Co. v. Bouchard, 111 R.I. 685, 306 A.2d 179 (1973), which held that § 44-5-26 is the exclusive remedy available for relief from an alleged illegal assessment of taxes. In that case, we concluded that if the Legislature intended...