Sanders v. State ex rel. Shamrock Properties

• Decision Date: 26 May 1950
• Citation: 46 So.2d 491
• Parties: SANDERS v. STATE et rel. SHAMROCK PROPERTIES, Inc.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 491

46 So.2d 491

SANDERS v. STATE et rel. SHAMROCK PROPERTIES, Inc.

Supreme Court of Florida, Special Division A.

May 26, 1950.

J.Lewis Hall, Tallahassee, for appellant.

J. L. Blackwell, Live Oak, for appellee.

CHAPMAN, Justice.

This is a mandamus proceeding brought in the Circuit Court of Dixie County, Florida, to compel the Tax Assessor of Dixie County to lower the valuations for assessment purposes of personal property for the year 1949 as owned by Shamrock Properties, Inc., a corporation, from the sum of $50,798.00, as fixed by the respondent-appellant Tax Assessor, to the sum of $40,798.00, as fixed by the Board of County Commissioners. The order reducing the amount of the assessment was entered by the Board of County Commissioners, after notice and hearing, pursuant to statute, which meeting was attended by named taxpayers, the relator-appellee and the respondent-appellant, Tax Assessor.

The Board of County Commissioners, at their July, 1949, meeting, after giving notice as required by law, proceeded to hear and consider complaints on the part of taxpayers of Dixie County on the question of valuations of property as submitted by the Tax Assessor for taxation purposes for the year 1949. The appellee-relator presented to the Board a complaint at the aforesaid meeting as to alleged excessive valuations on its property for the year 1949 as fixed by the respondent-appellant Tax Assessor. The Board, after hearing all interested parties, made and entered its order, the effect of which was to reduce the amount of the valuations as proposed by the Tax Assessor on the relator-appellee's personal property situated in Dixie County for the year 1949.

The relator-appellee amended paragraph two of its original petition to read as follows: 'That your petitioner is the owner of certain personal property, situate, lying and being in Dixie County, Florida, that it was such owner of said personal property on January 1st, 1949, and has been and is still the owner thereof, that said personal property is not specifically described on the assessment roll. That on March 17th, 1949, petitioner gave in its personal property and filed with the defendant as Tax Assessor under oath a full and correct return of its personal property owned in said County for the year 1949, which return showed the aggregate value of said personal property as being $28,098.00; that said return was made on forms furnished by the said Tax Assessor and said return was delivered to the said Tax Assessor who received and accepted the same and made no objection as to the form of the same, and the Agent of petitioner who filed the same with the Tax Assessor believed that said form and tax return was in proper order and was full and correct. That said Tax Assessor accepted from petitioner's agent said return as delivered to him, but did not accept the value of said personal property as stated therein as the true value of the same, but assessed the petitioner's said personal property for the year 1949 at a value of $50,798.00.'

The relator-appellee's amended paragraph four of its original petition alleged that O. M. Anderson was its agent and authorized to appear before the Board of County Commissioners and protest the valuation placed on its personal property by the Assessor and was fully authorized to request a reduction of the assessment thereof as made by the Tax Assessor at the sum of $50,798.00. An examination of the written return of personal property for the year 1949 appeared in the record as made to the Assessor by Shamrock Properties, Inc., upon its face discloses that it was not made under oath as prescribed by Section 193.27, F.S.A. The agent Anderson was not under oath, it is contended, when he protested the valuation of the personal property before the Board of County Commissioners. The Board, on this request, entered its order reducing the valuation of the personal property in the sum of $10,000.00.

The appellant-respondent, by letter dated July 22, 1949, addressed to the Board of County Commissioners, stated that the reduction order in the sum of $10,000.00 so entered by it was contrary to law and it was his intention to disregard the reduction order, which he considered invalid, and that it was his intention to extend on the assessment roll for the year 1949 the value of the appellee's personal property in the sum of $50,798.00. The point is made that the following language of Section 193.27, F.S.A., was totally disregarded by the appellee in making its return and by the Board of County Commissioners in ordering a $10,000.00 reduction in the Assessor's valuation: 'It is unlawful for the county commissioners to lower the assessment of any personal property given in by the owner or assessed by the assessor, which shall not have been specified under oath'. (Emphasis supplied.)

The alternative writ alleged, upon information and belief, that the Tax Assessor extended the roll and computed the totals thereon based upon assessed valuation of personal property appearing on the rolls of his office, as originally determined by him and has not, as required by law, extended the roll and computed the totals thereof based upon the valuations as fixed by the Board of County Commissioners sitting as a Board of Tax Equalizers and not by the valuations fixed and determined by the Tax Assessor. The command of the alternative writ required the Tax Assessor to extend the valuations upon the personal property of the relator-appellee in accordance with the equalization thereof as fixed by the Board of County Commissioners, sitting as a Board of Tax Equalizers, upon the tax roll of Dixie County, Florida, or to show cause for not so doing.

The record discloses that the defendantappellant filed a motion to quash the alternative writ of mandamus and the amendments to the original petition; and pertinent grounds of the motion being: (1) that the Board of County Commissioners of Dixie County was without jurisdiction to reduce the valuation placed on the personal property of the appellee; (2) The Board of County Commissioners, under Section 193.27, F.S.A., was without jurisdiction to lower the valuation placed on the personal property by the Assessor appellant; (3) it affirmatively appears by the record that the appellee never filed a written return under oath setting forth a description and valuation of all of its personal property; neither was the relator under oath at the hearing had before the Board of County Commissioners at its July meeting when the $10,000.00 reduction in valuation order was entered. The court below entered its order denying the appellant's motion to quash the alternative writ and the amended alternative writ under date of December 8, 1949.

The assessor-appellant's answer to the alternative writ alleged that the full cash value of the appellee's personal property situated in Dixie County on January 1, 1949, was the sum of $50,798.00 and the assessorappellant assessed said property for that amount and in so doing assessed the same on an equal and uniform basis without discrimination or excessive valuation. It is true that the appellee, through an agent, made a return of the personal property owned by it for taxation purposes but the...