Farmers Grain Dealers Ass'n of Iowa v. Woodward, 67322

• Decision Date: 18 May 1983
• Docket Number: No. 67322,67322
• Citation: 334 N.W.2d 295
• Parties: FARMERS GRAIN DEALERS ASSOCIATION OF IOWA, now known as American Grain and Related Industries, Appellant, v. Ralph WOODWARD, Chairman, Charles Colby, Jr., Harry Burgess, Walter Potts, Jr., and Everett Sather, Constituting the Board of Review of Assessments of Polk County, Iowa, and Harry Renaud and Clifford Custor, former members of said board; Jack Bishop, Chairman, Sam Anania, Tom Whitney, Richard Brannan, and Murray Drake, Constituting the Board of Supervisors of Polk County, Iowa; and Jim Maloney, Auditor of Polk County, Iowa, and Fred Horner, Treasurer of Polk County, Iowa, Appellees.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 295

334 N.W.2d 295

FARMERS GRAIN DEALERS ASSOCIATION OF IOWA, now known as American Grain and Related Industries, Appellant, v. Ralph WOODWARD, Chairman, Charles Colby, Jr., Harry Burgess, Walter Potts, Jr., and Everett Sather, Constituting the Board of Review of Assessments of Polk County, Iowa, and Harry Renaud and Clifford Custor, former members of said board; Jack Bishop, Chairman, Sam Anania, Tom Whitney, Richard Brannan, and Murray Drake, Constituting the Board of Supervisors of Polk County, Iowa; and Jim Maloney, Auditor of Polk County, Iowa, and Fred Horner, Treasurer of Polk County, Iowa, Appellees.

No. 67322.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

May 18, 1983.

Rehearing Denied June 9, 1983.

Elmer J. Jones and Robert A. Engberg of Pryor, Riley, Jones & Aspelmeier, Burlington, and John Carty, Winfield, for appellant.

Dan L. Johnston, County Atty., and Norman G. Jesse, Asst. County Atty., for appellees.

Considered by REYNOLDSON, C.J., and UHLENHOPP, McGIVERIN, LARSON, and SCHULTZ, JJ.

UHLENHOPP, Justice.

In this appeal of a mandamus action, taxpayer American Grain and Related Industries seeks to recover claimed over payment of real estate taxes and alleges excessive valuation of the property taxed. Defendants are county officers concerned with assessment and collection of property taxes; for convenience we will refer to them as the county. Our references are to the Iowa Code of 1971, and we will speak in this opinion of the Iowa law as of that time.

The county assessor placed the actual value of the property at $3,815,703 as of January 1, 1971. Taxpayer timely protested this value before the board of review, which reduced it to $3,249,611. Taxpayer then appealed to district court, which affirmed. Taxpayer paid the 1971 taxes of $110,174.22, which were based on the valuation of the board of review, but appealed from the district court judgment to this court. We decided the case in 1978. Farmers Grain Dealers Ass'n of Iowa v. Sather, 267 N.W.2d 58 (Iowa 1978).

While these proceedings were in progress regarding the 1971 valuation, the assessor valued the property for the following years as they ensued using the same figure of $3,249,611. Taxpayer did not protest the value for 1972 before the board of review and then appeal to court, but paid the 1972 tax when due in the amount of $108,887.22 (evidently a different millage rate). The same occurred in 1973 (tax of $146,955.69) and 1974 (tax of $95,953.26).

In our decision in 1978, we reduced the value for 1971 to $1,000,000, stating:

We, therefore, reverse the judgment of the trial court, and fix the fair market value of plaintiff's real estate for the year 1971 at $1,000,000. The defendant Board is directed to correct its records accordingly, and to certify the same to the Board of Supervisors of Polk County so that plaintiff's tax for the year 1971 may be recomputed on the basis of such assessment.

267 N.W.2d at 63. Our holding had the effect of reducing the 1971 tax to $33,907.68, or $76,266.54 less than paid. The county refunded this difference.

On a valuation of $1,000,000 for each of the years 1972, 1973, and 1974, the taxes would have totaled $108,269.51 for those three years instead of $451,796.17 actually paid, or a difference of $343,526.66. Taxpayer demanded a refund of this difference claiming that the value of $1,000,000 which we ultimately found for 1971 automatically fixed the values for 1972, 1973, and 1974 as well. The county asserted that a value is affixed to property each year for tax purposes, the value was actually so affixed, taxpayer did not protest or seek judicial review for the values affixed in 1972, 1973, and 1974, and those values therefore became final.

Taxpayer then sought relief in this court, and we referred taxpayer to the district court. Taxpayer thereafter brought this mandamus action in district court, asking a refund of the difference in the taxes over the three years. After trial, the district court held for the county. Taxpayer appealed, and we transferred the case to the Court of Appeals, which reversed. We then granted the county's application for further review. The question is whether a challenge to a valuation in the first year of a four-year property-tax cycle automatically constitutes a challenge in the following three years, or whether the taxpayer must protest and appeal the value the assessor actually places on the property in each of those years. Our decision in 1978 does not itself purport to determine the values for 1972, 1973, and 1974. In that case we fixed the value "for the year 1971" and directed the county to change its tax records "for the year 1971". 267 N.W.2d at 63.

I. Taxpayer's ground of resistance to further review that the county's service of the application was too late is overruled. Iowa R.App.P. 20.

II. On the merits we initially review the relevant portions of the statutes in 1971 governing real estate tax assessment. Section 428.4 of the Code of 1971 provided:

Property shall be taxed each year, and personal property shall be listed and assessed each year in the name of the owner thereof on the first day of January. Real estate shall be listed and valued in 1971 and every four years thereafter, and in each year in which real estate is not regularly assessed, the assessor shall list and assess any real property not included in the previous assessment....

Section 441.1 established the office of assessor. Section 441.17 provided:

The assessor shall:

....

2. Cause to be assessed, in accordance with section 441.21, all the property, personal and real, in his county or city as the case may be....

....

7. Submit on or before May 1 of each year completed assessment rolls to the board of review.

....

Section 441.18 provided:

Each assessor shall, with the assistance of each person assessed, or who may be required by law to list property belonging to another, enter upon the assessment rolls the several items of property required to be entered for assessment. He shall personally affix values to all property assessed by him.

Section 441.26 required assessment rolls, itemizing the taxable real and personal property and the values affixed thereto and notifying the taxpayer of the right to protest the assessment before the board of review between May 1 and May 20. The section also required that a copy of the roll be delivered to the taxpayer.

Section 441.28 required that the assessment be completed "not later than April 30."

Section 441.31 established the board of review, section 441.33 required sessions by the board from May 1 to 31 and, with extensions, to August 1, and section 441.35 provided:

The board of review shall have the power:

1. To equalize assessments by raising or lowering the individual assessments of real property including new buildings, personal property or moneys and credits made by the assessor.

2. To add to the assessment rolls any taxable property which has been omitted by the assessor.

In any year after the year in which an assessment has been made of all of the real estate in any taxing district, it shall be the duty of the board of review to meet as provided in section 441.33, and where it finds the same has changed in value, to revalue and reassess any part or all of the real estate contained in such taxing district, and in such case, it shall determine the actual value and compute the taxable value thereof, and any aggrieved taxpayer may petition for a revaluation of his property, but no reduction or increase shall be made for prior years.

Section 441.37 provided:

Any property owner or aggrieved taxpayer who is dissatisfied with his assessment may file a protest against such assessment with the board of review on or after May 1, to and including May 20, of the year of the assessment.... Said protest shall be in writing and signed by the one protesting or his duly authorized agent. Taxpayer may have an oral hearing thereon if request therefor in writing is made at the time of filing the protest. Said protest must be confined to one or more of the following grounds:

1. [Inequitable value compared with other property.]

2. [Assessed for more than value.]

3. [Property not assessable.]

4. [Error in assessment.]

5. [Fraud in assessment.]

In addition to the above, the property owner may protest annually to the board of review under the provisions of section 441.35, but such protest shall be in the same manner and upon the same terms as heretofore prescribed in this section.

Section 441.38 authorized appeal to district court from the board of review.

III. From early times in this state, each tax year has been separate; the assessment for the year is an individual assessment. Trustees of Flynn's Estate v. Board of Review, 226 Iowa 1353, 1362, 286 N.W. 483, 487 (1939); Board of Supervisors v. Sioux City Stock Yards Co., 223 Iowa 1066, 1074, 274 N.W. 17, 22 (1937); City of Davenport v. Chicago, R.I. & P. Ry., 38 Iowa 633, 639-40 (1874). A failure to make a timely protest or to take a timely appeal to court deprives the taxpayer of his protest or appeal and renders the assessment a finality for that year. Grundon Holding Co. v. Board of Review, 237 N.W.2d 755, 757 (Iowa 1976); Stampfer Building Co. v. Board of Review, 195 N.W.2d 390, 393 (Iowa 1972); Jones v. Mills County, 224 Iowa 1375, 1380, 279 N.W. 96, 99 (1938); Griswold Land & Credit Co. v. County of Calhoun, 198 Iowa 1240, 1243, 201 N.W. 11, 12 (1924); Carpenter v. Jones County, 130 Iowa 494, 497, 107 N.W. 435, 436 (1906); Nugent v. Bates, 51 Iowa 77, 80, 50 N.W. 76, 77 (1879); Op. Iowa Atty. Gen., 416, 419 (1966). The statutes we have quoted and the decisions we have cited, as well as the statutes in the succeeding chapters on tax lists, tax levies, and tax collections establish an annual property tax system on which public budgeting, revenues, and expenditures depend for certainty and stability.

The first procedure in the property tax system, the assessing process, consists of three...