Jefferson Schools v. Detroit Edison Co.

• Citation: 154 Mich.App. 390,397 N.W.2d 320
• Decision Date: 08 September 1986
• Docket Number: Docket No. 88209
• Parties: , 36 Ed. Law Rep. 458 JEFFERSON SCHOOLS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. The DETROIT EDISON COMPANY, Respondent-Appellee, and The Charter Township of Frenchtown, Respondent.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Michigan (US)

Page 320

397 N.W.2d 320

154 Mich.App. 390, 36 Ed. Law Rep. 458

JEFFERSON SCHOOLS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. The DETROIT EDISON COMPANY, Respondent-Appellee and The Charter Township of Frenchtown, Respondent.

Docket No. 88209.

Court of Appeals of Michigan.

Submitted July 28, 1986.

Decided Sept. 8, 1986.

Butzel, Keidan, Simon, Myers & Graham (by Rodman N. Myers, Jerome S. Ganger and Mark L. Kowalsky), Detroit, for petitioner-appellant.

Honigman, Miller, Schwartz & Cohn (by Charles H. Tobias and Rand S. Haimes), Detroit, for The Detroit Edison Co.

Before SULLIVAN, P.J., and ALLEN and KALLMAN, ^* JJ.

ALLEN, Judge.

We are asked to determine whether Jefferson Schools, a Michigan public body corporate, may properly invoke the jurisdiction of the Michigan Tax Tribunal with respect to assessments of property not owned by Jefferson Schools but owned by The Detroit Edison Company. The Tax Tribunal held that it was without jurisdiction. Jefferson Schools appeals as of right. The issue is of first impression.

The facts are not in dispute. Respondent Detroit Edison Company (Edison) owns certain property located in Frenchtown Township, Monroe County, Michigan; i.e., the Fermi I power plant, the Fermi II power plant, and the Monroe Power Plant Coal Blending Facility. In March, 1985, Jefferson Schools, which is authorized to levy taxes on the above Detroit Edison property, filed a petition before the Frenchtown Township Board of Review contending that the Detroit Edison property was underassessed. On March 26, 1985, the assessment was approved by a two-to-one vote of the board of review.

On June 28, 1985, Jefferson Schools filed three petitions with the Michigan Tax Tribunal, claiming that the Detroit Edison property was underassessed by approximately three billion dollars. As so assessed, the properties constitute sixty percent of the school district's tax base. On July 31, 1985, Jefferson Schools filed a motion for entry of default, contending that Detroit Edison and Frenchtown Township had failed to timely answer or otherwise respond to its petition.

On August 7, 1985, Edison filed a motion to dismiss, contending that Jefferson Schools did not have standing to invoke the jurisdiction of the Tax Tribunal with respect to Edison's assessments. On August 19, 1985, Jefferson Schools filed a motion to strike Edison's motion to dismiss. A response to Edison's motion was filed by Jefferson Schools on August 22, 1985. On September 11, 1985, Edison filed a second motion to dismiss, contending that Jefferson Schools had not paid the proper filing fees and the Tax Tribunal's jurisdiction could not be invoked until the proper filing fees were paid. Jefferson Schools' response was filed on September 27, 1985.

By order entered September 30, 1985, the Tax Tribunal granted Detroit Edison's first motion to dismiss and denied Jefferson Schools' motion for entry of default and motion to strike. The Tax Tribunal held that Jefferson Schools was not a proper party to invoke the jurisdiction of the Tax Tribunal.

"It being hereby concluded that Petitioner is not a local assessor or assessing unit, is not a taxpayer with respect to the subject property involved herein or a person 'whose property was assessed', and, in the absence of lawful authority allowing Petitioner to challenge another person's property assessment, this Petitioner is not a party in interest and has no standing to invoke the jurisdiction of the Tribunal in these assessment challenges and, while Petitioner could properly move to intervene under [MCL 205.744; MSA 7.650(44) ] in a matter where the taxpayer had properly and timely appealed an assessment, such is not the case here, and, pursuant to MCR 2.116, TTR 111(1) and (3) and TTR 230(1), Respondent's Motion to Dismiss should be granted."

The central issue raised in the instant case is a school district's ability to initiate in the Michigan Tax Tribunal a protest on another's property tax assessment. On this issue, we find a statutory void. Nothing in the statute states or otherwise evidences a manifest intent that a nonassessing, nontaxpaying entity, such as a school district, may invoke the jurisdiction of the Tribunal to challenge another entity's assessment. On the other hand, nothing in the statutory language expressly precludes a school district from such course of conduct. It is a rule of statutory construction that nothing will be read into a statute which is not within the manifest intention of the Legislature as gathered from the act itself. Allstate Ins. Co. v. DAIIE, 73 Mich.App. 112, 115-116, 251 N.W.2d 266 (1976); 73 Am Jur 2 d, Statutes, Sec. 198, pp 394-395.

In addition to the above rule which precludes us from reading into the statute something not otherwise clearly therein, close analysis of the relevant provisions of the Tax Tribunal Act compels us to hold that the statute does not authorize a school district to file a petition with the Tax Tribunal challenging another person's assessment. Section 35 of the Tax Tribunal Act, M.C.L. Sec. 205.735; M.S.A. Sec. 7.650(35), states in relevant part:

"In the case of an assessment dispute as to the valuation of the property or where an exemption is claimed, the assessment must be protested before the board of review before the tribunal may acquire jurisdiction of the dispute under subsection (2)....

"(2) The jurisdiction of the tribunal in an assessment dispute shall be invoked by the filing of a written petition by a party in interest, as petitioner, not latter than June 30 of the tax year involved.... Service of the petition on the respondent shall be by certified mail. In the case of an assessment dispute this service shall be mailed to the assessor of that governmental unit if the respondent is the local governmental unit. Except for petitions filed under chapter 6, [Residential Property and Small Claims Division] a copy of the petitioner shall also be sent to the secretary of the school board in the local school district in which the property is located and any county which may be affected." (Emphasis supplied.)

Under M.C.L. Sec. 211.20; M.S.A. Sec. 7.30, "any person whose property is assessed " is entitled to file a protest before the board of review regarding the assessment of his or her property. See Shaughnesy v. Tax Tribunal, 420 Mich. 246, 362 N.W.2d 219 (1984). M.C.L. Sec. 211.20; M.S.A. Sec. 7.30 makes no provision for protests by persons or entities such as school districts having no ownership interests in the assessed property. Because M.C.L. Sec. 205.735(2); M.S.A. Sec. 7.650(35)(2) provides that the school district must be given notice of the appeal by the petitioner, we believe the Legislature did not intend to include a school district (not owning the property whose assessment was being contested) as a "party in interest" empowered to file "a written petition" with the Tax Tribunal. It is only reasonable to conclude that, if the Legislature had intended to permit school districts to challenge assessments of other persons' property, it would not, in all cases, have required "a copy of the petition ... be sent to the secretary of the school board."

Additional support for the position that a school district is without power to invoke the jurisdiction of the Tax Tribunal in disputes over the level of assessment of other persons' property is found in Sec. 44(1) of the statute which reads:

"Except for petitions filed under chapter 6, the tax tribunal may permit the intervention of impleading of any governmental unit which receives tax funds from the petitioner who is making the appeal." [M.C.L. Sec. 205.744(1); M.S.A. Sec. 7.650(44)(1).]

Under this language the proper procedure for Jefferson Schools was to move the Tax Tribunal for leave to intervene in the assessment dispute. This is the procedure followed by this Court in Consumers Power Co. v. Big Prairie Twp., 81 Mich.App. 120, 265 N.W.2d 182 (1978). In that case Consumers Power had protested its assessment by the township at the board of review and after being rebuffed had appealed to the Tax Tribunal. At the tribunal level, Newaygo County, for the first time, claimed the assessments were too low and sought intervention under Sec. 44(1). Consumers Power objected to intervention claiming the county had no rights to seek a raising of assessments already made. This Court rejected the claim stating:

"We reject this argument by virtue of Sec. 44, MCL 205.744; MSA 7.650(44), which allows the intervention or impleading by a local governmental unit upon a showing of monetary interest in the proceedings. Obviously, Newaygo County, which levels its county millage on the basis of total county valuation, had a direct monetary interest in the dispute. No time limitations on the date of intervention are set forth in Sec. 44." [81 Mich.App. 159, 265 N.W.2d 182.]

Obviously, in the instant case, Jefferson Schools, which receives approximately seventy percent of all taxes levied on the Edison property, has a direct monetary interest in the dispute and was entitled to intervene in the Tax Tribunal proceedings. However, there is a material difference between intervening in a dispute brought by the taxpayer or assessing officer and a dispute initiated by a third party having a direct monetary interest. The fact that the Legislature has specifically approved intervention or impleading by a public body after the property owner or assessing officer has invoked the jurisdiction of the Tax Tribunal pursuant to Sec. 35(2) implicitly shows that the Legislature did not intend to allow a school district or other governmental unit, not owning property the assessment of which is in dispute, to initiate a petition under Sec. 35(2).

Finally, the fact that a school district is given express authority to initiate appeals as to the level of assessments in some cases, but is not given such authority in other instances, reinforces our ...