Miller v. Gibson County Solid Waste Management Dist.
| Decision Date | 13 October 1993 |
| Docket Number | No. 82T10-9303-TA-00013,82T10-9303-TA-00013 |
| Citation | 622 N.E.2d 248 |
| Parties | William A. MILLER and Taxpayers for Alternate Landfill Location, Petitioners, v. GIBSON COUNTY SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT DISTRICT, being Warner E. Clem, Roger T. Myers, R. Allen Harmon, Jr., Gary Bise, George Taylor, Hubert O. Crawford, and Hazel Pauley and State Board of Tax Commissioners, being C. Kurt Zorn, Gordon E. McIntyre, and Wanda Watts, Respondents. |
| Court | Indiana Tax Court |
Terry A. White, Olsen Niederhaus, Labhart & White, Evansville, for petitioners.
Karl R. Sturbaum, George T. Patton, Jr., Bose McKinney & Evans, Indianapolis, for respondents.
This is an appeal from a final determination of the Respondent, the State Board of Tax Commissioners (the State Board), approving a proposed $2,100,000 bond issue to underwrite a new landfill in Gibson county. The Petitioners, William Miller and Taxpayers for Alternate Landfill Location (collectively, TALL), disagreed with the proposed issue and brought this appeal, naming the Gibson County Solid Waste Management District (the District), and the State Board, as Respondents in the action.
This case has been marked by a high degree of acrimony since its inception, which in turn has caused the parties difficulty in defining and developing the relevant issues. After reviewing the parties' several briefs and motions, therefore, the court consolidates and rephrases the issues for review as the following:
I. Whether the court has subject matter jurisdiction over the appeal.
II. Whether the court can provide relief on TALL's claim under the Open Door Law, IND.CODE 5-14-1.5.
III. Whether evidence presented to the Local Government Tax Control Board constitutes the sole evidence presented to the State Board as a matter of law.
IV. Whether the District complied with the procedural requirements of IND.CODE 6-1.1-20 in developing the proposed bond issue.
V. Whether TALL met its burden under IND.CODE 6-1.1-20-5 to show the bond issue is "unnecessary or excessive."
VI. Whether the State Board abused its discretion or exceeded its statutory authority by amending its final order.
The basic facts underlying this litigation are not in dispute. In the fall of 1989, the Gibson County Commissioners learned the county-owned landfill would reach capacity in the mid 1990s. The Commissioners considered several options, including expansion, use of an out-of-county landfill, and construction of a new landfill. With this latter objective in mind, they hired engineers, who surveyed the county to find an acceptable site for a new landfill. In late 1990, the engineers began investigating an old coal mine outside Oakland City in the eastern area of the county and eventually determined the site to be geologically suitable for a landfill. The site is surrounded by large trees, sits close to existing roads, and is separated by at least 200 yards from the nearest residence. On the other hand, the site is within a mile of eighty-five water wells, that serve surrounding rural homes and the needs of the entire town of Francisco.
By early July of 1991, Gibson County had been authorized to act as a county solid Petitioner Miller, who lives less than a mile from the Oakland City site, disagreed with the need for a new landfill at the site. Along with several other interested landowners, he formed TALL and began the protests that eventually culminated in this appeal. The additional procedural facts critical to each issue will be provided as necessary.
waste management district under IND.CODE 13-9.5-2. The District determined that constructing a new landfill at the Oakland City site was the best course of action and decided to issue $2,100,000 in bonds to finance that construction.
At the close of trial on August 6, the Respondents moved to dismiss TALL's appeal for want of subject matter jurisdiction. Specifically, they claim TALL's noncompliance with the requirements of IND.CODE 6-1.1-15-5 (Section 5) is fatal to TALL's case. Section 5 is not dispositive in this case, and the court therefore denies the motion.
In appeals from the State Board, Section 5 generally prescribes the procedural steps petitioners must follow.
(a) Within fifteen (15) days after the state board of tax commissioners gives notice of its final determination under section 4 of this chapter, the county executive may, upon the request of the county assessor, request a rehearing before the board. The county assessor must notify, by mail, the taxpayer and the appropriate township assessor of the request. The board may conduct a rehearing and affirm or modify its final determination, giving the same notices after the rehearing as are required by section 4 of this chapter.
(b) A person may appeal the state board of tax commissioners' final determination regarding the assessment of that person's tangible property. The appeal shall be taken to the tax court....
(c) If a person desires to initiate an appeal of the state board of tax commissioners' final determination, the person shall:
(1) file a written notice with the state board of tax commissioners informing the board of his intention to appeal;
(2) file a complaint in the tax court; and
(3) serve the attorney general and the county assessor with a copy of the complaint.
(d) To initiate an appeal under this section, a person must take the action required by subsection (c) within:
(1) forty-five (45) days after the state board of tax commissioners gives the person notice of its final determination under:
(A) IC 6-1.1-14-11; or
(B) section 4 of this chapter;
unless a rehearing is conducted under subsection (a); or
(2) thirty (30) days after the board gives the person notice under subsection (a) of its final determination, if a rehearing is conducted under subsection (a).
. . . . .
Section 5 (emphasis added). It is undisputed TALL did not comply with all the requirements stated in the statute. In those cases falling within Section 5's penumbra, failure to comply with the statute is a subject matter jurisdictional failure. "If a taxpayer fails to comply with any statutory requirement for the initiation of an original tax appeal, the tax court does not have jurisdiction to hear the appeal." IND.CODE 33-3-5-11(a); Sherry Designs, Inc. v. State Bd. of Tax Comm'rs (1992), Ind.Tax, 589 N.E.2d 285, 286. As the emphasized language quoted above demonstrates, however, Section 5 is not universal in scope.
Subsection (b) of Section 5 authorizes taxpayers to appeal a State Board final determination "regarding the assessment of that person's tangible property." The present appeal, of course, is not an appeal Under subsection (d), which sets the time limits for filing an appeal, the limitations period in cases without rehearings starts from the date of notice of the State Board's final determination under either IC 6-1.1-14-11 or IC 6-1.1-15-4. IC 6-1.1-14-11 governs the notice requirements for State Board review of assessments and reassessments under IND.CODE 6-1.1-14-10. This latter statute grants the State Board authority to "review the assessment or reassessment of any tangible property and ... reassess the property." IC 6-1.1-14-10 (emphasis added). Similarly, section 4 of IC 6-1.1-15 controls State Board review "of a county board of review's action with respect to the assessment of [a] taxpayer's tangible property." IND.CODE 6-1.1-15-3(a) (emphasis added). Like subsection (b), then, subsection (d) controls only appeals from State Board final determinations assessing a taxpayer's tangible property. Once again, the present appeal has no relation to any assessment of tangible property.
of a tangible property assessment. Rather, it is an appeal from a final determination approving a proposed bond issue under the auspices of IC 6-1.1-20.
Notwithstanding the unmistakable language of subsections (b) and (d), the District and the State Board claim Section 5 controls because subsection (c) makes no reference to a taxpayer's tangible property or to any other statute that does. This reasoning is untenable. Statutes must be read as a whole: "[t]he intent of the legislature in drafting a statute cannot be determined from viewing words on a selective basis out of context from the remainder of the statute." Area Interstate Trucking, Inc. v. Indiana Dep't. of Revenue (1992), Ind.Tax, 605 N.E.2d 272, 274, cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 183, --- L.Ed.2d ---- (citing In re Estate of Cassner (1975), 163 Ind.App. 588, 592-93, 325 N.E.2d 487, 490). Rather, courts must construe statutes within the context of the entire act of which they are a part, Harlan Sprague Dawley, Inc. v. Indiana Dep't of State Revenue (1992), Ind.Tax, 605 N.E.2d 1222, 1225 (citing Guinn v. Light (1990), Ind., 558 N.E.2d 821, 823), striving foremost to ascertain and give effect to the true intent of the legislature. Johnson County Farm Bureau Coop. Ass'n v. Indiana Dep't of State Revenue (1991), Ind.Tax, 568 N.E.2d 578, 580, aff'd (1992), Ind., 585 N.E.2d 1336, (citing Scheid v. State Bd. of Tax Comm'rs (1990), Ind.Tax, 560 N.E.2d 1283, 1286).
Subsection (c) is a part of a larger whole, not only of section 5, but of chapter 15 of IC 6-1.1, as well. The legislature's manifest intent, repeated throughout chapter 15, is to establish a system for review of assessments of tangible property. Like the rest of Section 5, subsection (c) applies only to those appeals involving tangible property assessments. To hold otherwise would divorce subsection (c) from its proper context and require the court to ignore all the cited rules of statutory construction. Even worse, without any legislative basis, it would create procedural roadblocks of jurisdictional significance.
The case at bar does not involve an appeal of a tangible property assessment. Section 5 is therefore inapplicable, and TALL's failure to comply with its requirements has no subject matter jurisdictional effect. Next...
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