Hertz Corp. v. State Tax Commission
| Decision Date | 08 September 1975 |
| Docket Number | 58734,58795,58696,58740,58742,58735,58733,58714,58813 and 58730,58695,58743,Nos. 58694,s. 58694 |
| Citation | 528 S.W.2d 952 |
| Parties | The HERTZ CORPORATION et al., Appellants (Plaintiffs), v. The STATE TAX COMMISSION of Missouri, ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Missouri, et al., Respondents (Defendants). |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
James Crowe, St. Louis, for appellant, The Hertz Corp.
Harold E. Goldberg, St. Louis, for appellants, Henry Binsbacher and Handley Products Co.
John T. Murphy, Murphy & Schlaprizzi, St. Louis, for appellants, Premier Service Corp. and Auto Rental Inc.
Jack L. Koehr, City Counselor, James J. Wilson, Associate City Counselor, St. Louis, for appellant City of St. Louis.
Thomas C. Walsh, Franklin F. Wallis, Michael B. McKinnis, St. Louis, for appellant, Avis Rent--A--Car System, Inc.; Bryan, Cave, McPheeters & McRoberts, St. Louis, of counsel.
John C. Danforth, Atty. Gen., Walter Nowotny, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, Thomas W. Wehrle, St. Louis County Counselor, Clayton, Boyle, Priest, Elliott & Weakley, Howard Elliott, Edward D. Weakley, St. Louis, for respondent, Berkeley School District.
This proceeding involves thirteen appeals by or on behalf of nine concessionaires who are tenants occupying space at Lambert-St. Louis Municipal Airport. The six tenants named as appellants in the caption filed separate appeals. The City of St. Louis filed separate notices of appeal in its own name in behalf of four of those tenants and three others, i.e., Red Arrow Corporation, Airborne Freight Corporation and Air Cargo Terminals, Inc. The appeals were ordered consolidated by this court. The appellants seek a review of real estate assessments for the year 1968 by the St. Louis County Assessor as affirmed by the County Board of Equalization, the State Tax Commission and the St. Louis County Circuit Court. The controversy in these cases relates to the method of valuation and assessment in regard to 'leasehold interests' or 'possessory interests' of portions of the airport occupied by the concessionaries here involved. The airport is located in St. Louis County and owned and operated by the City of St. Louis. For reasons hereinafter appearing the City has opposed these assessments against its lessees. We have appellate jurisdiction because construction of the revenue laws of this state is involved. Art. V, Section 3, Mo.Const.
This is a companion case to Frontier Airlines, Inc. et al. v. State Tax Commission of Missouri et al., Mo., 528 S.W.2d 943, decided concurrently herewith. The evidence in each case was substantially the same and the basic issue is identical. Therefore, for reasons stated in Frontier we hold that the method or formula used by the Assessor in these cases is an improper method of valuation unauthorized by law and that its approval by the State Tax Commission was arbitrary and unreasonable.
There is, however, an additional point raised in these cases not raised in Frontier which we have concluded must be decided. This involves the question as to whether the City of St. Louis is a proper party in these proceedings and an 'aggrieved party' within the meaning of Section 536.100 V.A.M.S.
At the beginning of the hearing before the Commission the respondents moved to strike the City as a party because no assessment had been levied against it and it was therefore not a proper party or aggrieved party. The motion was taken with the case and sustained at the conclusion of the proceedings. The circuit court held that there was no statutory authority for the City's petition for review on behalf of certain of its tenants (which amounted to a vicarious appeal) and denied relief.
The City says it had a right to appeal from the board of equalization to the Commission because Section 138.430(2) V.A.M.S. gives that right to 'Every owner of real property.' We do not agree. We think it must be implicit in that section that the property owner must have been aggrieved by the valuation fixed by the board of equalization. Here, no tax was assessed against the City and we must therefore decide whether there was any other basis for concluding that it was aggrieved.
A rather convincing argument is made by the City to the effect that it has an interest in this controversy. It points out that the assessments will create a lien on the leaseholds; that there is no personal liability for payment of real estate taxes; that if the taxes are not paid the county will likely try to sell the leaseholds; that such would create many legal problems and might result in it having some undesirable tenants. The City also suggests that if the assessments are upheld and the taxes are paid by the tenants that such will increase the tenants' cost of doing business and decrease the amount of rent the City would be able to obtain in future lease agreements.
The general rule is that a party is aggrieved when the judgment operates prejudicially and directly upon his personal or property rights or interests and that such must be immediate and not merely a possible remote consequence. See 4 C.J.S. Appeal & Error § 183, p. 559, et seq. The Missouri case...
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Savage's Estate, Matter of
...when the judgment operates prejudicially and directly upon his personal or property rights or interests ...." Hertz Corp. v. State Tax Commission, 528 S.W.2d 952, 954 (Mo. banc 1975). To appeal as such, a personal representative must be adversely affected in his representative capacity as d......
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