Marshall v. Perkins, 85-2748
| Decision Date | 13 August 1986 |
| Docket Number | No. 85-2748,85-2748 |
| Citation | 494 So.2d 506,11 Fla. L. Weekly 1801 |
| Parties | 11 Fla. L. Weekly 1801 Ernest S. MARSHALL and Patricia K. Marshall, his wife, Appellants, v. Frank PERKINS, as Manatee County Property Appraiser, and Sam Cornwell, as Manatee County Tax Collector, Appellees. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Ernest S. Marshall, Bradenton, for appellants.
Robert H. Schultz and Scott B. Kallins, of Robert H. Schultz & Associates, P.A., Bradenton, for appellee Frank Perkins.
Michael M. Hamrick of Harllee, Porges, Hamlin & Brownell, Professional Ass'n, Bradenton, for appellee Sam Cornwell.
The appellants, Ernest S. Marshall and his wife, Patricia K. Marshall (the Marshalls), have appealed from an order of the trial court dismissing with prejudice their complaint in which they challenge the real property tax imposed upon them for the year 1982. Their complaint was filed in early 1983. The Marshalls failed to pay the assessed ad valorem tax for the year 1984. Subsequently, on April 15, 1985, the Marshalls paid the 1984 arrearage and were granted an opportunity to amend their complaint to allege compliance with the statute. In the same order, however, the trial court granted the tax collector's motion to dismiss on the jurisdictional ground stemming from the Marshalls' failure to pay their 1984 taxes before they had become delinquent.
In its pertinent parts, section 194.171, Florida Statutes (1983), the controlling statute, provides as follows:
(3) Before a taxpayer may bring an action to contest a tax assessment, he shall pay to the collector not less than the amount of the tax which he admits in good faith to be owing. The collector shall issue a receipt for the payment, and the taxpayer shall file the receipt with his complaint.
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(5) No action to contest a tax assessment may be maintained, and any such action shall be dismissed, unless all taxes on the property assessed in years after the action is brought, which the taxpayer in good faith admits to be owing, are paid before they become delinquent.
(6) The requirements of subsections (2), (3), and (5) are jurisdictional. No court shall have jurisdiction in such cases until after the requirements of both subsections (2) and (3) have been met. A court shall lose jurisdiction of a case when the taxpayer has failed to comply with the requirements of subsection (5).
The Third District has recently passed upon the application of this statute in Diaz v. Bystrom, 487 So.2d 1112 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986). We note at the outset our disagreement with the reasoning and result in that case. We are in conflict with Diaz.
In Diaz the Third District attributed threshold significance to the absence of a statutory provision permitting the jurisdictional bar to be overcome by payment, albeit tardy. By holding that the timely payment of taxes is not a jurisdictional prerequisite to maintenance of an action contesting a tax assessment, the Third District has imported the absent language into the statute. The result in Diaz cannot logically be grounded upon the premise that any other construction would be counterproductive of the statute's purpose to generate expendable revenue. The statute achieves that end without judicial refashioning. Its plain language leaves no one in doubt that if a challenge to the assessment is attempted, that challenge will not relieve the challenger of the...
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Mikos v. Parker, 90-00720
...prerequisites was to insure the continued flow of tax revenue during the extended period of an assessment challenge. Marshall v. Perkins, 494 So.2d 506 (Fla. 2d DCA 1986), aff'd sub nom. Bystrom v. Diaz, 514 So.2d 1072 (Fla.1987). The legislature's objective is not hindered by the relative ......
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Forest Brooke/Hillsborough, LLC v. Henriquez
...have given effect to the literal jurisdictional language. See Bystrom v. Diaz, 514 So.2d 1072, 1074–75 (Fla.1987) ; Marshall v. Perkins, 494 So.2d 506, 507 (Fla. 2d DCA 1986), approved by Bystrom, 514 So.2d 1072. There is no mistaking the clear language of section 194.171(5) : a taxpayer ma......
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Sowell v. Faith Christian Family Church of Pan. City Beach, Inc., 1D17-3365
...of the obligation to pay successive years' taxes." Bystrom v. Diaz , 514 So.2d 1072, 1074 (Fla. 1987) (quoting Marshall v. Perkins , 494 So.2d 506, 507 (Fla. 2d DCA 1986) ); see also Washington Square Corp. v. Wright , 687 So.2d 1374 (Fla. 1st DCA 1997) ; Wilkinson v. Clarke , 91 So.3d 897 ......
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Washington Square Corp. v. Wright, 96-2228
...1072 (Fla.1987). A "challenge will not relieve the challenger of the obligation to pay successive years' taxes." Marshall v. Perkins, 494 So.2d 506, 507 (Fla. 2d DCA 1986), approved, 514 So.2d 1072 It was open to Washington Square, after paying good faith estimates of taxes due in subsequen......