Poythress v. Wilkins

• Decision Date: 11 September 1995
• Docket Number: No. A95A1724,A95A1724
• Citation: Poythress v. Wilkins, 462 S.E.2d 423, 218 Ga.App. 475 (Ga. App. 1995)
• Parties: POYTHRESS et al. v. WILKINS et al.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

Page 423

462 S.E.2d 423

218 Ga.App. 475

POYTHRESS et al. v. WILKINS et al.

No. A95A1724.

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

Sept. 11, 1995.

Adams & Ellis, Dwight T. Feemster, Savannah, for appellants.

Zipperer & Lorberbaum, Alex L. Zipperer, Janet S. Foerster, Savannah, for appellees.

BEASLEY, Chief Judge.

Plaintiffs, owners of a mobile home park in Effingham County, filed this complaint against the Tax Commissioner and Board of Commissioners (the "Board") of Effingham County.

The Board established special districts for the provision of fire protection and solid waste management services. To provide partial funding for such services, the Board through resolutions imposed an annual assessment to be levied on all "dwelling units" in the sanitation district, and a tax assessment of $35 to be made and collected on, among other things, all "residential, taxable units" in the fire district. The resolutions do not define these terms.

The Tax Commissioner collected the assessments from property owners, including the owners of mobile home parks. The Board passed a motion instructing the Tax Commissioner to collect the fire assessment from mobile home owners with mobile home decals. For administrative reasons, the Tax Commissioner refused to collect either fire or waste management assessments except from the owners of property on which mobile homes are located. Accordingly, the Tax Commissioner refused to accept plaintiffs' tender of their real property taxes without payment of these assessments for each rented space on their land occupied by a mobile home.

Plaintiffs instituted this action for a declaratory judgment, asserting that collection of the assessments in this manner: (1) violates the uniformity provision of the 1983 Georgia Constitution (Art. VII, Sec. I, Par. III), (2) constitutes an unlawful delegation of legislative authority to plaintiffs, and (3) is inconsistent with the resolutions of the Board.

The superior court granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment and denied the plaintiffs' similar motion after resolving each of the above three issues against plaintiffs.

Plaintiffs appealed to the Supreme Court, contending that the superior court erred in its resolution of each issue. Citing Northwestern Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Suttles, 201 Ga. 84, 103(2), 38 S.E.2d 786 (1946), and cases exemplified by Potts v. State Hwy. Dept., 225 Ga. 6, 165 S.E.2d 726 (1969), the Supreme Court transferred the appeal to us, on the ground that the appeal raises no constitutional questions within its jurisdiction but only questions as to the correctness of the taxing authorities' construction of the resolutions and their authority to enforce those resolutions.

The taxing authorities argue that collection of the assessments against plaintiffs is authorized by the resolutions, because the terms "residential units" and "dwelling units" can be interpreted as meaning spaces in a mobile home park on which mobile homes are located as well as the mobile home itself. To the contrary, the terms "residential units" and "dwelling units" refer to mobile homes by their plain and ordinary meaning. See City of Cordele v. Hill, 250 Ga. 628...