Wilkes v. Redding, 33787
| Citation | 247 S.E.2d 872,242 Ga. 78 |
| Decision Date | 06 September 1978 |
| Docket Number | No. 33787,33787 |
| Court | Supreme Court of Georgia |
| Parties | WILKES v. REDDING et al. |
Marson G. Dunaway, Jr., Rockmant, for appellant.
William C. Tinsley, II, Douglasville, for appellees.
Charles L. Wilkes, a Doulgas County taxpayer, brought this injunction and mandamus action against the members of the Board of Equalization of Douglas County. The trial court dismissed his suit and he appeals. We affirm.
The taxpayer appealed his property tax assessment pursuant to Code Ann. § 92-6912, not only questioning the taxability, valuation and uniformity of assessment, but also raising several constitutional issues. In addition, he filed questions to the members of the board to determine disqualification under Code Ann. § 92-6912(8) (A, B). Prior to the December, 1977, hearing, eleven more grounds for appeal were added by amendment. At that time, he and his attorney objected to the continuation of the hearing because the questions posed to the commissioners had not been formally answered under oath as required by the statute. The board overruled his objections to the hearing and to the members' disqualification, refused to require the tax assessors to be present for cross examination as the taxpayer had requested, and, when he and his attorney thereupon left the meeting, proceeded without hearing any evidence to affirm the values set by the tax assessors. The taxpayer then filed this petition for mandamus and injunction seeking to force the board of equalization to follow the procedures set out in the statute, to disqualify certain members, to require the tax assessors to appear at the hearing, and to make written rulings on each ground of his appeal. The trial court dismissed his petition for failure to state a claim, but ordered the new 1978 board of equalization to answer formally the questions regarding disqualification. 1
We held in Tax Assessors of Gordon County v. Chitwood, 235 Ga. 147, 218 S.E.2d 759 (1975), that an appeal before a board of equalization provides an adequate remedy at law for the determination of county taxpayers' questions, making unnecessary the exercise of the equitable powers of the superior court. In Butts County v. Briscoe, 236 Ga. 233, 236, 223 S.E.2d 199, 201 (1976), we said: Accord, Barr v. Jackson County, 238 Ga. 332, 232 S.E.2d 923 (1977). See Chilivis v. Backus, 236 Ga. 88, 222 S.E.2d 371 (1976). The board of equalization is thus the appropriate forum for deciding the taxpayer's constitutional and procedural issues as well as questions of...
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