Irongate Enter. v. County of St. Louis, A06-1193.
| Decision Date | 02 August 2007 |
| Docket Number | No. A06-1193.,A06-1193. |
| Citation | 736 N.W.2d 326 |
| Parties | IRONGATE ENTERPRISES, INC., Relator, v. COUNTY OF ST. LOUIS, Respondent. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Relator Irongate Enterprises, Inc., filed a petition challenging the St. Louis County Assessor's January 2004 valuation of the Irongate Mall, in Hibbing, Minnesota. Respondent County of St. Louis (the county) filed a motion to dismiss the petition, alleging that Irongate failed to comply with Minn.Stat. § 278.05, subd. 6(a) (2006). The tax court granted the county's motion to dismiss and denied Irongate's subsequent motion for reconsideration. Irongate filed a writ of certiorari with our court. We affirm.
In January 2005, Irongate filed a petition contesting the county's January 2004 valuation assessed against its property located in Hibbing, known as the Irongate Mall. Irongate claimed that the property was unfairly and unequally assessed when compared to estimated market values and resulting tax assessments for properties of similar classes and locales. Under the so-called 60-day rule, petitioners challenging a county's valuation of property for tax assessment purposes must provide statutorily enumerated information about the property to the county assessor no later than 60 days after the statutory filing deadline. Minn.Stat. § 278.05, subd. 6(a). The consequence for failing to meet the statutory deadline, with limited exceptions, is dismissal of the petition. Id. Irongate's filing deadline appeared to be April 30, 2005. On June 28, before the 60 day deadline expired, Irongate provided only income statements and rent rolls for the subject property.
On August 17, 2005, the county requested additional documents from Irongate, including copies of the leases for space in the subject property from January 1, 2000, through the date documents were requested. Irongate objected to the request for leases, stating that the request was overly broad and unduly burdensome but that the leases were available for the county's inspection at offices in Los Angeles, California, where the leases were "ordinarily kept in the usual course of business." Irongate also attached a lease abstract to its response to the county's request for document production, which contained the lease information that Irongate determined was relevant to these proceedings.
On December 19, 2005, the county filed a motion to dismiss Irongate's petition for failure to provide the county with copies of the leases, alleging a violation of the 60-day rule. The tax court granted the county's motion, stating that "compliance with the 60 Day Rule requires production of any and all information available to a petitioner seeking to reduce the assessed value of its property" and concluding that Irongate's failure to produce the leases resulted in dismissal of its petition under the 60-day rule. Irongate Enters., Inc. v. County of St. Louis (Irongate I), No. C7-05-600160, 2006 WL 1141191, at *3 (Minn. T.C. Apr. 28, 2006).
Irongate filed a motion for reconsideration of the tax court's order, arguing that all of the income and expense information contained in the leases was also contained in the income statements and rent rolls produced by Irongate. Irongate also argued that the tax court erred in concluding that leases containing income and expense information must be produced under the 60-day rule and such an interpretation renders the rule unconstitutionally vague. Finally, Irongate argued that the tax court confused compliance with the 60-day rule with a discovery dispute between parties because the county did not request the leases until after the 60-day rule had expired. The tax court denied Irongate's motion for reconsideration, concluding that production of the leases was required under the 60-day rule in this case, in addition to the income statements and rent rolls, and that requiring production of the leases did not render the 60-day rule unconstitutionally vague. Irongate Enters., Inc. v. County of St. Louis (Irongate II), No. C7-05-600160, 2006 WL 2506187, at *3 (Minn. T.C. Aug. 25, 2006). Irongate filed a petition for a writ of certiorari to our court, and we address each issue Irongate argued in its motion for reconsideration.
We may review tax court decisions that allegedly fail to conform to law. Minn. Stat. § 271.10, subd. 1 (2006). We review legal issues de novo. BFW Co. v. County of Ramsey, 566 N.W.2d 702, 704 (Minn. 1997). Here, the parties do not dispute the facts and agree that only legal issues remain.
Irongate first argues that the tax court erred in concluding that under Minn.Stat. § 278.05, subd. 6(a), Irongate's failure to provide its leases with mall tenants to the county warranted dismissal of its petition. We review construction of a statute de novo. Lietz v. N. States Power Co., 718 N.W.2d 865, 869 (Minn.2006). When a statute is unambiguous, the clear language of the statute shall not be disregarded to pursue the spirit of the law. Minn.Stat. § 645.16 (2006). "The object of all interpretation and construction of laws is to ascertain and effectuate the intention of the legislature." Id.
A property owner may challenge a county's assessment of its property if the owner believes that the property has been unfairly assessed in comparison with other property or has been assessed at a valuation greater than its actual value. Minn. Stat. § 278.01, subd. 1(a) (2006). If an owner files a petition to challenge a county's valuation, Minn.Stat. § 278.05, subd. 6(a), known as the 60-day rule, provides:
Information, including income and expense figures, verified net rentable areas, and anticipated income and expenses, for income-producing property must be provided to the county assessor no later than 60 days after the applicable filing deadline contained in section 278.01, subdivision 1 or 4. Failure to provide the information required in this paragraph shall result in the dismissal of the petition, unless (1) the failure to provide it was due to the unavailability of the evidence at the time that the information was due, or (2) the petitioner was not aware of or informed of the requirement to provide the information.1
Irongate argues that under the plain language of the 60-day rule, it produced all of the required information to the county, noting that the language of the statute does not require production of leases. Although the 60-day rule does not explicitly mention "leases," the enumerated disclosures are preceded by the word "including," which suggests that those disclosures are not the complete list of "information" contemplated. If the legislature had intended that under the 60-day rule a petitioner was only to provide "income and expense figures, verified net rentable areas, and anticipated income and expenses," then the words "[i]nformation, including" would be superfluous. See Minn.Stat. § 645.17 (2006) ().
But Irongate argues that the legislature did not believe that leases were included under the 60-day rule disclosures, based on a 1991 amendment to the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act, specifically Minn.Stat. § 13.51, subd. 2 (1990), concerning income property assessment data. As enacted in 1981, subdivision 2 classifies types of enumerated data collected from individuals or business entities as nonpublic, including: "(a) Detailed income and expense figures * * *; (c) Verified net rentable areas * * *; (d) Anticipated income and expenses * * *." Act of May 29, 1981, ch. 311, § 30, subd. 2, 1981 Minn. Laws 1427, 1438. In 1991, the legislature amended subdivision 2, adding "(f) lease information" to the nonpublic income property assessment data. Act of May 31, 1991, ch. 291, art. I, § 1, 1991 Minn. Laws 1361, 1364.
Irongate contends that because the original enactment did not include "lease information" and the legislature added the language in 1991, those same terms in the 60-day rule cannot encompass leases; if the legislature believed leases were encompassed by "income and expense figures," "verified net rentable areas," and "anticipated income and expenses," there would have been no need to amend section 13.51, subd. 2, to include lease information. This line of argument ignores that the enumerated data in section 13.51, subd. 2, is a complete list of all nonpublic property assessment data, while the information described in the 60-day rule is only a partial list, and the rule is intended to be broader than what is enumerated, as indicated by the preceding word "including." Further, Irongate's argument fails to consider that information in leases may also be relevant to the categories of information described in the 60-day rule, including income and expense figures, as discussed below.
Irongate maintains that its disclosed income statements and rent rolls provided the required information under the three enumerated categories in the 60-day rule, and consequently, there was no reason to provide leases, which contain identical and therefore duplicative information. But the county argues that lease provisions contain additional relevant income and expense information. Specifically, the county asserts that leases typically contain information relevant to the income approach of real estate appraisal, information which was not contained in the incomes statements and rent rolls provided by Irongate. We agree with the county.
We recently addressed the income model of real estate appraisal in Kmart Corp. v. County of Stearns, 710 N.W.2d 761 (Minn.2006). In that case, a petitioner/lessee challenged Stearns County's property valuation under Minn.Stat. § 278 and timely provided the county a copy of its lease. Id. at...
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