Maricopa County v. North Central Development Co., 1

• Decision Date: 30 September 1976
• Docket Number: CA-CIV,No. 1,1
• Citation: 27 Ariz.App. 561,556 P.2d 1164
• Parties: COUNTY OF MARICOPA, a political subsdivision of the State of Arizona, Robert Stark, B. W. Burns and Henry Haws as members of the Board of Supervisors and/or The Maricopa County Board of Equalization, Kenneth Kunes, Maricopa County Assessor, Howard L. Relfe, Lowell L. Monsees and Charles Moody, as members of and constituting the Arizona State Board of Property Tax Appeals, and the Arizona Department of Property Valuation, Appellants, v. NORTH CENTRAL DEVELOPMENT CO., a partnership, Appellee. 2914.
• Court: Arizona Court of Appeals

Page 1164

556 P.2d 1164

27 Ariz.App. 561

COUNTY OF MARICOPA, a political subsdivision of the State of Arizona, Robert Stark, B. W. Burns and Henry Haws as members of the Board of Supervisors and/or The Maricopa County Board of Equalization, Kenneth Kunes, Maricopa County Assessor, Howard L. Relfe, Lowell L. Monsees and Charles Moody, as members of and constituting the Arizona State Board of Property Tax Appeals, and the Arizona Department of Property Valuation, Appellants, v. NORTH CENTRAL DEVELOPMENT CO., a partnership, Appellee.

No. 1 CA-CIV 2914.

Court of Appeals of Arizona, Division 1, Department A.

Sept. 30, 1976.

Rehearing Denied Nov. 4, 1976.

Petition for Review Denied Dec. 7, 1976.

Bruce E. Babbitt, Atty. Gen. by James D. Winter, Asst. Atty. Gen., Phoenix, for appellants.

O'Connor Cavanagh Anderson Westover Killingsworth & Beshears, P.C., by Jeffrey B. Smith, Phoenix, for appellee.

OPINION

OGG, Judge.

The plaintiff-appellee North Central Development Company brought actions in the Maricopa County Superior Court (C--264130, C--271683), seeking a refund on real property taxes paid under protest to the defendant-appellant County of Maricopa for the years 1971 and 1972. The actions brought under the provisions of ARS §§ 42--152 and 42--204 were consolidated for trial and were tried on the sole issue of whether the North Central Development Company was subjected to discriminatory real property tax assessments in 1971 and 1972.

The trial court found that there was discrimination as to the valuations placed on certain parcels and ordered that such valuations be reduced. The appellants, the Arizona and Maricopa County taxing authorities have filed this appeal.

The appellee taxpayer is a partnership composed of Harry and Newton Rosenzweig, and the Del Webb Corporation which owns the subject property comprising the Rosenzweig Center in Phoenix, Arizona. The Rosenzweig Center complex contains several buildings, including the Del Webb Towne-House, Del Webb Building, Continental Bank, Rosenzweig Building and the Pepsicola Building, together with landscaped open areas and parking facilities. The property is located in the North Central high-rise corridor, along the west side of North Central Avenue between Indian School Road and Osborn Road.

A brief history of this particular tax dispute shows that for the tax years of 1971 and 1972 the Maricopa County Assessor's Office had placed a valuation of $6.50 per square foot on all land in the Rosenzweig Center. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, sitting as the Board of Equalization, found that a valuation of $6.00 per square foot should apply for the parcels fronting on North Central Avenue up to a depth of 200 to 300 feet, with the remaining rear portions of the property to be valued at $3.50 per square foot. The State Board of Property Tax Appeals raised the assessment to $6.00 per square foot on all the land underlying the Rosenzweig Center and the taxpayer appealed to the Maricopa County Superior Court. The Maricopa County Superior Court ruled that the taxpayer was entitled to tax refunds because that portion of the Rosenzweig Center real property located more than 200 feet back from the west side of North Central Avenue should have been assessed at $3.50 per square foot rather than at $6.00 per square foot.

The taxpayer's claim of discrimination was based upon the fact that while it was assessed at $6.00 per square foot for the Rosenzweig Center, all other taxpayers owning property on the west side of North Central Avenue between Indian School Road and Osborn Road were assessed at $6.00 per square foot up to a depth of approximately 200 feet with the back portion of their property assessed at $3.50 per square foot.

The taxpayer contends that the intentional, systematic over-valuation of its property when compared to the lower assessments placed on similar property in the same class amounts to discrimination and entitles the taxpayer to a tax refund. Sparks v. McCluskey, 84 Ariz. 283, 327 P.2d 295 (1958); Bade v. Drachman, 4 Aria.App. 55, 417 P.2d 689 (1966); Sunday Lake Iron Co. v. Township of Wakefield, 247 U.S. 350, 38 S.Ct. 495, 62 L.Ed. 1154 (1918).

The appellant taxing authorities find no quarrel with this principle of tax law but assert there was in fact no discrimination in the assessment of the Rosenzweig Center real property.

We have reviewed the transcript and find there is no legal competent evidence to support a finding that there was discrimination in the appraisal of the Rosenzweig Center that would entitle the taxpayer to a tax refund.

Under the provisions of ARS § 42--221(B) the county assessor is required to determine the full cash value of property for tax purposes. The term 'full cash value' is defined in ARS § 42--201, subsection 4:

'Full cash value' for property tax purposes is synonymous with market value which means that estimate of value that is derived annually by the use of standard appraisal...