Forest Grove Service Corp. v. Prince William County
| Decision Date | 04 September 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. 840768,840768 |
| Citation | 359 S.E.2d 821,234 Va. 109 |
| Parties | FOREST GROVE SERVICE CORPORATION v. PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY. Record |
| Court | Virginia Supreme Court |
Richard R. Nageotte, Woodbridge, for appellant.
Sharon E. Pandak, Deputy Co. Atty. (John H. Foote, Co. Atty., James E. Barnett, Asst. Co. Atty., on brief), for appellee.
Present: All the Justices.
The dispositive question in this appeal is whether a circuit court has jurisdiction to review an assessment made by the State Corporation Commission (Commission) upon the property of a public service corporation. We also consider whether the three-year limitation period contained in former Code § 58-1017 applies.
The facts were stipulated below. Forest Grove Service Corporation (Forest Grove) owned and operated facilities that obtained and supplied water. It also had facilities that collected and treated sewage. Forest Grove provided both water and sewer services to a mobile home park and a residential subdivision in Prince William County. For each of the tax years from 1974 through 1980, Forest Grove submitted to the Commission an annual report listing all its property, pursuant to former Code § 58-607. The annual reports listed Forest Grove's reported valuations of its property, and the location thereof, including both those items used in providing water services and those used in providing sewer services.
Each year, the Commission assessed for tax purposes all the Forest Grove property reported to it, without making any breakdown between those properties used for water services and those used for sewer services. The Commission reported its annual assessments to Prince William County. Each year, the County adopted a tax rate, levied taxes on Forest Grove's property by applying its rate to the Commission's assessment, and billed Forest Grove for the taxes.
Forest Grove never initiated any proceedings before the Commission to challenge the assessments, but it refused to pay the taxes. In 1980, the County instituted this action in the circuit court as a motion for judgment against Forest Grove for the collection of delinquent taxes, with penalties and interest. Forest Grove defended on the grounds that the taxes were void and unconstitutional because they were based on unlawful or erroneous assessments, and that the County's right to collect them was barred by the statute of limitations.
The case was submitted to the circuit court on the stipulated facts and the briefs of counsel. In a letter opinion, the court concluded that it lacked jurisdiction to review an assessment made by the Commission. The court also determined that the three-year statute of limitations contained in former Code § 58-1017, upon which Forest Grove relies, applies only to actions to recover taxes based on corrected assessments, not to taxes on properties properly assessed, and was therefore inapplicable. A final order was entered on February 23, 1984, granting the County judgment in the full amount claimed. We granted Forest Grove an appeal.
Forest Grove's challenge is based upon the fact that former Title 58, Art. 10, Code of Virginia, 1950 () provided for assessment by the Commission, and consequent taxation by the localities, of the property of public service corporations engaged in "the business of furnishing water or heat, light and power." Former Code § 58-602. The statutes made no mention of sewer services. Forest Grove argues that the Commission had no authority to assess that part of its property which was used in furnishing sewer services and that the taxes based thereon were unlawful. It concedes the Commission's authority to assess its property used for water services.
The trial court, citing City of Alexandria v. RF & P, 223 Va. 293, 299, 288 S.E.2d 457, 461 (1982), held that the court lacked jurisdiction to review and correct an order entered by the Commission. We agree. We held in RF & P that the remedy for a property owner aggrieved by an assessment made by the Commission...
To continue reading
Request your trial