Supervisor of Assessments of Howard County v. Carroll, 34
Decision Date | 17 January 1984 |
Docket Number | No. 34,34 |
Citation | 298 Md. 311,469 A.2d 858 |
Parties | SUPERVISOR OF ASSESSMENTS OF HOWARD COUNTY v. Philip CARROLL. Sept. Term 1983. |
Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
T. Scott Basik, Asst. Atty. Gen. , for appellant.
John C. Murphy, Baltimore, for appellee.
Argued before MURPHY, C.J., and SMITH, ELDRIDGE, COLE, DAVIDSON, RODOWSKY and COUCH, JJ.
In this case we shall address the issue left open in Warlick v. Supervisor of Assess., 272 Md. 540, 544, 325 A.2d 587 (1974), "[w]hether accessory or auxiliary structures on a farm, occupied by farm employees, need necessarily be assessed [on the basis of the exemption for farmland]." Under the circumstances in this case, we conclude that as a matter of law the residences here involved are not entitled to the exemption. Hence, we shall reverse the holding of the Court of Special Appeals in its unreported opinion in Supervisor of Assessments of Howard County v. Philip Carroll, No. 324, September Term, 1982, filed January 19, 1983, and thus, ultimately, the decision of the Tax Court.
The facts which we shall recite are gleaned primarily from an agreed statement of facts filed pursuant to Maryland Rule 828 g. This case concerns two tracts of farmland located in Howard County. The Supervisor of Assessments of Howard County assessed on a residential basis the curtilage of each residence located on those tracts. The remainder of the land was assessed on an agricultural basis pursuant to the provisions of Maryland Code (1957, 1980 Repl.Vol.) Art. 81, § 19(b)(1). It states:
See Annot., 98 A.L.R.3d 916 (1980).
One tract, known as Doughoregan Manor, consists of 2,042.38 acres of land. It contains seventeen residences including the manor house. The assessor assigned five acres of residential curtilage for assessment purposes to the manor house. A gatehouse and three other residences at various locations on the tract were assigned one acre of curtilage each. The gatehouse and one of these other houses were occupied by farm employees who resided there for the purpose, so it was said, of the continued maintenance and operation of the adjacent farmland. Thirteen other residences were situated on the tract in a cluster. The Supervisor allocated five acres as the collective curtilage of all of those houses. Four of them served as residences for farm employees. The second tract consisted of 118.319 acres of land and included three residences. One was occupied by a farm employee who lived there for the purpose of the continued maintenance and operation of the adjacent farmland.
The taxpayer appealed to the Property Tax Assessment Appeals Board of Howard County. The issues presented included that the residences occupied by farm employees were entitled to exemption under § 19(b)(1). The Board affirmed all of the residential assessments but reduced the amount of some of them. Both parties appealed to the Maryland Tax Court pursuant to Code (1957, 1980 Repl.Vol.) Art. 81, § 229.
Two witnesses appeared before the Tax Court on behalf of the taxpayer--Philip Carroll, who managed the property and who described himself as the remainderman under his father's will, and Barry Morton, an expert agricultural consultant. As the agreed statement of facts puts it, they "testified that it would impede the operation of Doughoregan Manor as a farm to subdivide off any of these homesites." According to the agreed statement of facts there was no evidence that any farm-related activity occurred on these homesites other than the use of seven of them as residences for persons said to work on the farms. No evidence was presented, however, as to the nature of these employees' duties. Those residences not occupied by farm employees were rented. Some were let to Howard County police officers for the salutary effect their presence had on the neighborhood. The land on both farms was zoned so as to require minimum subdivided lot sizes of one acre. The Supervisor of Assessments assessed all of the homesites on a residential basis pursuant to a directive promulgated on September 4, 1979, by the State Department of Assessments and Taxation in its procedures manual.
At an earlier time the land involved here had been a dairy farm. Carroll testified that the residences located on it had been used by those employed on the dairy farm whose continuous presence was necessary to its operation. The dairy farm had proven unprofitable, however, and during the time relevant to this case the land was devoted to cash crops--"corn and some alfalfa hay." Carroll did imply in his testimony that at some time in the future he might go into the beef cattle business and that if so there would be a need for additional farmhands and the use of all the residences as places in which the farm workers could live.
The Tax Court held that each homesite which was occupied by a farm employee qualified for assessment on an agricultural basis as authorized by § 19(b)(1) and should not be assessed on a residential basis. The Tax Court further stated, "Our opinion is buttressed by the fact that large farms such as the subject property before us, cannot be operated without the assistance of employees." It found, however, that each homesite which was occupied by a renter, or which was unoccupied, was residential property and did not qualify for the agricultural use assessment.
The Supervisor of Assessments appealed to the Circuit Court for Howard County. The latter affirmed the Tax Court's decision. The Supervisor then appealed to the Court of Special Appeals, which also affirmed the Tax Court's decision. We granted a writ of certiorari to consider the important public question presented here.
An earlier version of Art. 81, § 19(b)(1) was before the Court in State Tax Comm. v. Wakefield (Gales), 222 Md. 543, 161 A.2d 676 (1960). The statute specified that lands "actively devoted to farm or agricultural use" should be assessed on the basis of such use and should "not be assessed as if subdivided or on any other basis." The Court in Gales held that the State's constitutional requirement of uniform taxation of land within a taxing district applies to the method as well as the rate of taxation. Because the statute set up a separate classification of land for tax purposes it exceeded the constitutional bounds of Article 15 of the Declaration of Rights. The Court discussed the statute in terms of a partial exemption. It found no basis for allowing the General Assembly to grant such an exemption, noting that the power to grant complete exemptions is not unlimited. 222 Md. at 557, 161 A.2d 676.
The General Assembly responded to Gales by proposing a constitutional amendment which ultimately was adopted by the voters. The General Assembly also enacted new legislation contingent on the adoption of the amendment, which was in basically the same form as the present statute. Judge Horney set forth this history for the Court in Supervisor v. Alsop, 232 Md. 188, 192 A.2d 484 (1963):
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