Hamilton v. Adkins

• Court: Alabama Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: STAKELY, Justice.
• Citation: Hamilton v. Adkins, 250 Ala. 557, 35 So.2d 183 (Ala. 1948)
• Decision Date: 08 April 1948
• Docket Number: 6 Div. 679.
• Parties: HAMILTON v. ADKINS et al.

35 So.2d 183

250 Ala. 557

HAMILTON v. ADKINS et al.

6 Div. 679.

Supreme Court of Alabama

April 8, 1948

Rehearing Denied May 13, 1948.

A A. Carmichael, Atty. Gen., Gardner F. Goodwyn, Jr., Asst Atty. Gen., Willard McCall, Deputy Solicitor of Jefferson County, and Thos. E. Huey, Jr., Asst. City Atty., both of Birmingham, for appellant.

Hugh A. Locke, Wade H. Morton, Horace C. Wilkinson Wm. S. Pritchard, Winston McCall, Thos. Coleman and Bryant A. Whitmire, all of Birmingham, for appellees.

STAKELY Justice.

The question for decision is whether the increase in the assessments of ad valorem taxes in this case is violative of the constitutional principal of uniformity of taxation. Nora Alice Adkins and three other taxpayers of Jefferson County seek by a bill in equity to enjoin the board of equalization, the tax assessor and the tax collector from making an alleged illegal increase in the assessment of taxes. Several thousand similarly situated taxpayers filed petitions for intervention, which have not been passed upon. The case was presented for temporary injunction upon bill, answer and affidavits. A temporary injunction was issued granting relief to all four complainants against the tax collector, but not against the tax assessor or board of equalization. J. W. Hamilton, as Tax Collector, brings this appeal from the foregoing decree.

Various reasons are advanced by the appellant as showing that the injunction should not have been issued, including for example the contention that injunction does not lie to restrain the collection of taxes, but we think that it is well go to to the heart of the inquiry and consider the case on its merits without considering or passing upon other questions. With this thought in mind we have concluded that the injunction should not stand.

It seems clear that the constitutional principle of uniformity of taxation may be infringed by the method of administration of a property tax statute, even though the statute is fair on its face. Discrimination in the assessment or valuation by administrative officers may result in violation of the equality clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution. Cumberland Coal Co. v. Board of Revision, 284 U.S. 23, 52 S.Ct. 48, 76 L.Ed. 146; Southern R. Co. v. Watts, 260 U.S. 519, 43 S.Ct. 192, 67 L.Ed. 375. Before this result can be reached, however, it is necessary that the action of the administrative officials be more than mere error in judgment or result in more than inequality in valuation. It must be shown that the officials are chargeable with a purpose or design to discriminate by a systematic method. Sunday Lake Iron Co. v. Township of Wakefield, 247 U.S. 350, 38 S.Ct. 495, 62 L.Ed. 1154; Rowley v. Chicago & N. W. R. Co., 293 U.S. 102, 55 S.Ct. 55, 79 L.Ed. 222; Southern R. Co. v. Watts, supra; Greene v. Louisville & Interurban R. Co., 244 U.S. 499, 37 S.Ct. 673, 61 L.Ed. 1280, Ann.Cas.1917E, 88; Raymond v. Chicago Union Traction Co., 207 U.S. 20, 28 S.Ct. 7, 52 L.Ed. 78, 12 Ann.Cas. 757; Great Northern R. Co. v. Weeks, 297 U.S. 135, 56 S.Ct. 426, 80 L.Ed. 532; Penney v. State, 221 Ala. 230, 128 So. 596.

Careful consideration of the record, including the court's decree, shows that the case turns on the effect to be given a plan of tax equalization devised by the tax officials which is referred to as 'the four year plan of review and revision of assessments.' Under this plan Jefferson County is divided into four districts. Tax assessments on properties located in one district are reviewed and equalized in one year, with a like procedure in the other districts respectively in the three next succeeding years with the idea that at the end of four years all assessments in Jefferson County would have been reviewed and equalized. In 1946 the board of equalization reviewed and reappraised units of real property lying in the area known as Shades Valley. In 1947 the board of equalization reviewed and reappraised units of real property located for the most part in the district which is known as the Elyton Land Company's Survey. The properties of complainants lie in this segment of Jefferson County. It is claimed that the valuations are based on a general price increase throughout the county and that inequality results because valuations in the part of the county wherein the properties of complainants lie have been increased while the properties lying in other parts of the county have not been, increased, except those properties lying in Shades Valley.

There is no doubt that the board of equalization has adopted a systematic plan for equalization over a four year period. This brings us to the design or intention with which the plan has been formulated. In this connection we quote from the answer of the respondent, especially since it shows the method used by the board of equalization.

'It is further averred that because of the large number of taxable units of property in Jefferson County and the large value of said property in Jefferson County which includes many industries and factories and plants, that it is a physical impossibility to review in one tax year the files of all of the taxable units of property in said County; and it is also a physical impossibility to make an on the spot inspection or appraisal of all of the units of taxable property in said County. It is possible to review in any one taxable year a portion only of taxable property in said county for the purpose of equalizing and appraising said property at its fair and reasonable market value. It is possible to review within any one taxable year approximately one-fourth of the taxable units of property within this County.

'The Board of Equalization began its work of reappraising and equalizing the assessments in this county in the tax year 1940 which began October 1, 1939. In that year and in each subsequent year, the Board by formal resolution has approved and adopted the 164,000 assessments which the tax assessor had set up on his books as the assessment for the current year in each of the said years, and the Board has assessed for taxation in each of the years since its creation in 1939 the entire 164,000 units of property in said County. The Board of Equalization in the tax year 1940 commenced the policy and the plan to equalize as speedily as possible all of the units of property in the said County at 60% of the fair and reasonable market values thereof. In furtherance of such plan, the said Board reviewed approximately 7,000 units of property in the Shades Valley area and the close-in downtown districts in Birmingham. This review of said property in Shades Valley and the downtown district of Birmingham was as much as it was physically possible for the Board to review in said tax year. This limitation upon the amount of review in said year was due to the limited size of the Board and the restriction upon the number of employees and appraisers that could be employed by the Board. For the said tax year 1940, the Board equalized the said 7,000 units of property at 60% of the fair and reasonable market value thereof.

'In furtherance of its plan to equalize as speedily as possible all of the taxable units in said County, the Board in the tax year 1941, approved, ratified, and assessed the 164,000 units of property within the County and concurrently reviewed approximately 70,000 units of property in Birmingham, Leeds, Irondale, Tarrant and Warrior, and it was a physical impossibility for the Board to have reviewed more than the said 70,000 units of property in said tax year. The Board reviewed in said tax year as many units of taxable real property as it was physically possible to so review. Said review of said 70,000 units of property equalized the assessed value thereof at 60% of the fair and reasonable market value.

'In the tax year 1942, the said Board of Equalization, in furtherance of its plan to equalize as speedily as possible all of the property in said County, approved, ratified and assessed again said 164,000 units of property within said county, and concurrently reviewed approximately 47,000 units of property in Bessemer, Hueytown, Brighton, and the industrial plants between Bessemer and Ensley, and the mining districts on Red Mountain. It was a physical impossibility to have reviewed any more than said 47,000 units of property in said tax year. The Board of Equalization reviewed as much of the property within Jefferson County as it was physically possible to so review in said tax year. The 47,000 units in said year were equalized at 60% of the fair and reasonable market value thereof.

'In 1943 in furtherance of said plan to equalize said County as speedily as possible, said Board approved, ratified, and assessed said 164,000 units of property within said County for said tax year, and concurrently reviewed and reappraised the remaining 40,000 units of taxable real property in said County most of which units lay in Ranges 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. The Board of Equalization reviewed as many units of property in said tax year as it was physically possible to review. Said 40,000 units for said year were equalized at 60% of the fair and reasonable market value thereof.

'The entire County of Jefferson and all of the real property thereof was reviewed and equalized within said four-year period from the tax year 1940 through the tax year 1943.

'In 1946 six years after its original commencement of equalization and appraisal, the Board commenced a review and equalization of the entire County for the second time. The Board ratified, approved and assessed the 164,000 units which the Tax Assessor had set up for said current year, and concurrently reviewed and reappraised and equalized approximately 7,000 units of real property in Shades Valley. This review and...