Department of Revenue v. Ford

• Decision Date: 08 September 1983
• Docket Number: No. 62555,62555
• Citation: 438 So.2d 798
• Parties: DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE, State of Florida, etc., et al., Petitioners, v. Frank A. FORD, etc., et al., Respondents.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 798

438 So.2d 798

DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE, State of Florida, etc., et al., Petitioners, v. Frank A. FORD, etc., et al., Respondents.

No. 62555.

Supreme Court of Florida.

Sept. 8, 1983.

Rehearing Denied Nov. 4, 1983.

Jim Smith, Atty. Gen. and Joseph C. Mellichamp, III, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and William M. Barr of Raymond, Wilson, Conway, Barr, Burrows & Jester, Daytona Beach, for petitioners.

Harlan Tuck of Giles, Hedrick & Robinson, Orlando, and Edwin P.B. Sanders of Landis, Graham, French, Husfeld, Sherman & Ford, DeLand, for respondents.

ADKINS, Judge.

This is a review of a decision of the Fifth District Court of Appeal declaring section 193.481, Florida Statutes (1981), to be unconstitutional as applied, which is reported at 417 So.2d 1109 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982). We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(3), Fla. Const.

Section 193.481 requires the separate ad valorem assessment and taxation of separately-owned subsurface rights in Florida. The respondents in this case are owners of separate subsurface rights in several thousand acres of land in Volusia County, Florida. Volusia County is within the limits of the multi-county St. Johns River Water Management Taxing District. The respondents' interests were separately assessed by the Volusia County property appraiser for the years 1975 through 1979. The respondents filed this action against the Department of Revenue and the Property Appraiser of Volusia County, John Turner, asserting a multitude of objections to the assessments and contending that the statute, section 193.481, is unconstitutional on its face and as applied to them. The trial court rejected respondents' arguments and concluded that the disputed assessments and taxes on respondents' subsurface rights were lawful and correct. However, the court declared that its judicial conscience was shocked by the "flagrant and continuous disregard of the clear terms of a mandatory statute" as evidenced by the failure of property appraisers in other counties to assess similar property. Accordingly, the trial court directed that a copy of the judgment be furnished to the governor and also ordered the Department of Revenue to take appropriate action to ensure compliance with section 193.481. The Department of Revenue filed an appeal and the taxpayers filed a cross-appeal.

On appeal, the district court concluded that the statute is not necessarily unconstitutional on its face and is capable of being applied constitutionally, provided it is properly implemented as necessary to achieve uniformity and equality in the assessment and just valuation of subsurface mineral rights. However, the court reversed the judgment and remanded the cause to the trial court to act on its findings and to declare the statute unconstitutionally applied as to the assessments of the taxpayers' subsurface rights in Volusia County. The trial court was also ordered to declare the assessments null and void, to require an appropriate refund of all taxes paid by the taxpayers under the illegal assessments, and to enjoin the collection of taxes levied upon the assessments.

The district court opinion explored in detail the legislative provisions which outline the responsibilities of the Department of Revenue in regards to ad valorem taxation. We agree with the court's conclusion that the Florida Department of Revenue is clearly charged with implementing the legislature's intention that Florida's ad valorem taxation laws are enforced, implemented and administered uniformly throughout the state. § 195.027(1), Fla.Stat. (1981). Central to this duty is the Department's responsibility of supervising Florida property appraisers and other local taxation officials and ensuring that they comply with the laws which govern the assessment, collection and administration of ad valorem taxes. The evidence clearly supports the conclusion of both the trial judge and the district court that the Department had taken no serious or effective action to require all Florida property appraisers to comply with the requirement of section 193.481 to assess subsurface interests in or to real property. Nevertheless, we cannot agree with the district court's ultimate conclusion that the fact that these taxpayers' subsurface rights were assessed in Volusia County when substantially all similar property was not assessed in other counties in the water management district and that the taxpayers' property so assessed was valued at a level higher than the general level of assessments of substantially all other similar property in other counties in the district entitles those taxpayers to relief from their assessments.

This Court has rejected these arguments on previous occasions. In 1977 in Spooner v. Askew, 345 So.2d 1055 (Fla.1977), the Court rejected the argument that a properly assessed taxpayer can obtain relief by showing inequality of assessments in other counties. We stated: "This Court has never declared as invalid an entire tax roll which assesses property at 100% of full fair market value ... and it has never required a reevaluation of assessed real property values in one county based on comparative inequalities with assessed values in another county. Id. at 1057-58. We expressly recognized that statewide uniformity is "more a goal than a compellable right." Id. at 1059. Again in 1978 in Straughn v. GAC Properties, Inc., 360 So.2d 385 (Fla.1978), the Court declined to hold, merely on the basis of an allegation that different values had been assigned to adjacent properties of like character in different counties, that a taxpayer could claim a violation of the "just valuation" requirement or that the Department could be compelled to equalize the values. Our tax system should strive to move toward uniformity, but a lack of statewide uniformity generally does not give a taxpayer a cause of action to reduce or cancel a valid tax assessment. We have recognized an exception to this general rule when all or substantially all of the property in a county is systematically assessed at a percentage of value less than a property owner's property within that same county. Deltona Corporation v. Bailey, 336 So.2d 1163, 1168 (Fla.1976). But, the taxpayer/property owner must show that he has been singled out and specifically discriminated against vis-a-vis other taxpayers generally in the county. Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. County of Dade, 275 So.2d 4 (Fla.1973); Dade County v. Salter, 194 So.2d 587 (Fla.1966). The respondents have not alleged or shown such general, systematic underassessment of property within Volusia County. In no sense have they claimed that their property interests have been singled out for unfavorable treatment as against all other property in the county.

The taxpayers also challenged the validity of the assessment of their severed subsurface mineral rights on the ground that section 193.481, Florida Statutes (1981), is facially void for vagueness because it directs that the use of statutes and regulations relating to the assessment of other real property shall apply to the separate assessment of such subsurface rights only "insofar as they may be applied." The statute reads:

(1) Whenever the mineral, oil, gas, and other subsurface rights in or to real property in this state shall have been sold or otherwise transferred by the owner of such real property, or retained or acquired through reservation or otherwise, such subsurface rights shall be taken and treated as an interest in real property subject to taxation separate and apart from the fee or ownership of the fee or other interest in the fee. Such mineral, oil, gas, and other subsurface rights, when separated from the fee or other interest in the fee, shall be subject to separate taxation. Such taxation shall be against such subsurface interest and not against the owner or owners thereof or against separate interests or rights in or to such subsurface rights.

(2) The property appraiser shall, upon request of the owner of real property who also owns mineral, oil, gas, or other subsurface mineral rights to the same property, separately assess the subsurface mineral right and the remainder of the real estate as separate items on the tax roll.

(3) Such subsurface rights shall be assessed on the basis of a just valuation, as required by s. 4, Art. VII of the State Constitution, which valuation, when combined with the value of the remaining surface and undisposed of subsurface interests, shall not exceed the full just value of the fee title of the lands involved, including such subsurface rights.

The taxpayers assert that the delegation of discretion to the county appraiser to determine which factors in the statute will be applied when...