Ahrens v. Town of Fulton

2002 WI 29, 641 N.W.2d 423, 251 Wis. 2d 135, 2002 Wisc. LEXIS 223
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 26, 2002
Docket99-2466
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 2002 WI 29 (Ahrens v. Town of Fulton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ahrens v. Town of Fulton, 2002 WI 29, 641 N.W.2d 423, 251 Wis. 2d 135, 2002 Wisc. LEXIS 223 (Wis. 2002).

Opinions

WILLIAM A. BABLITCH, J.

¶ 1. Richard Ahrens and approximately 136 to 138 other mobile home owners (owners)1 appeal from a court of appeals' decision that held that, with respect to all but one of the twenty representative owners chosen to represent the entire class, their mobile homes were appropriately taxed as real property, as opposed to personal property as the owners contend. The statutes require that a mobile home must be "set upon a foundation" before it can be [148]*148taxed as real property. We conclude that all of the representative owners' mobile homes were "set upon a foundation" within the meaning of the statute.

I-H

¶ 2. This case involves the classification of mobile homes for property tax purposes. The law pertaining to such classification is important to note at the outset. "Mobile homes" are defined under Wis. Stat. § 66.058(1)(d) (1997-98)2 as follows:

"Mobile home" is that which is, or was as originally constructed, designed to be transported by any motor vehicle upon a public highway and designed, equipped and used primarily for sleeping, eating and living quarters, or is intended to be so used; and includes any additions, attachments, annexes, foundations and appurtenances.

For property tax purposes, such mobile homes are classified into two categories: improvements to real property and personal property. Wisconsin Stat. § 70.043 sets forth the criteria for each classification, stating:

70.043 Mobile homes. (1) A mobile home as defined in s. 66.058, is an improvement to real property if it is connected to utilities and is set upon a foundation upon land which is owned by the mobile home owner. In this section, a mobile home is "set upon a foundation" if it is off its wheels and is set upon some other support.
(2) A mobile home, as defined in s. 66.058, is personal property if the land upon which it is located is [149]*149not owned by the mobile home owner or if the mobile home is not set upon a foundation or connected to utilities.

Wis. Stat. § 70.043(l)-(2). For purposes of this case, it is important to note that Wis. Stat. § 70.111(19)(b) provides an exemption from taxation for some mobile homes that are classified as personal property. This statute specifically provides:

70.111 Personal property exempted from taxation. The property described in this section is exempted from general property taxes:
(19) Camping Trailers and Recreational Mobile Homes, (a) Camping trailers as defined in s. 340.01(6m).
(b) Mobile homes, as defined in s. 66.058, that are no larger than 400 square feet and that are used primarily as temporary living quarters for recreational, camping, travel or seasonal purposes.

Wis. Stat. § 70.111(19)(b). In this case, all of the owners' mobile homes were classified as improvements to real property.

¶ 3. The owners brought actions pursuant to Wis. Stat. § 74.35, which permits taxpayers to recover any unlawful taxes. This statute provides the following definition for an "unlawful tax":

74.35 Recovery of unlawful taxes. (1) Definitions. In this section "unlawful tax" means a general property tax with respect to which one or more errors specified in s. 74.33(1) (a) to (f) were made. "Unlawful tax" does not include a tax in respect to which the alleged defect is solely that the assessor placed a valuation on the property that is excessive.

[150]*150Wis. Stat. § 74.35(1). The owners claimed that errors occurred under Wis. Stat. § 74.33(l)(a), (b), or (c). This statute provides:

74.33 Sharing and charging back of taxes due to palpable errors. (1) Grounds. After the tax roll has been delivered to the treasurer of the taxation district under s. 74.03, the governing body of the taxation district may refund or rescind in whole or in part any general property tax shown in the tax roll, including agreed-upon interest, if:
(a) A clerical error has been made in the description of the property or in the computation of the tax.
(b) The assessment included real property improvements which did not exist on the date under s. 70.10 for making the assessment.
(c) The property is exempt by law from taxation, except as provided under sub. (2).

Wis. Stat. § 74.33(l)(a)-(c). With this legal background, we next discuss the facts and procedural history of this case.

I — H H — I

¶ 4. The owners each own a mobile home located on individually-owned lots in a real estate development known as Wisconsin's Rock River Leisure Estates in the Town of Fulton (Town) in Rock County. For the 1995, 1996, and 1997 tax years, the Town taxed the mobile homes as improvements to real property, as defined under Wis. Stat. § 70.043(1). For each tax year, the owners paid the taxes and then filed claims with the Town pursuant to Wis. Stat. § 74.35(2), which permits property taxpayers to seek recovery of unlawful taxes [151]*151from the taxation district that collected the tax. The Town disallowed these claims.

¶ 5. For each tax year, the owners also filed separate actions in Rock County Circuit Court to recover the amount of the claim not allowed, as permitted under Wis. Stat. § 74.35(3)(d). In each action, the owners claimed that their homes should have been exempt personal property under Wis. Stat. § 70.111(19)(b) and that taxation of their homes as improvements to real property constituted an error under Wis. Stat. § 74.33(1), requiring a finding that an unlawful tax had been levied. The circuit court consolidated the actions by agreement of the parties. The parties then agreed that 20 of the approximately 138 owners would serve as representative owners and would stipulate to certain facts.3

¶ 6. The parties stipulated to the following relevant facts regarding the 20 representative owners.

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Bluebook (online)
2002 WI 29, 641 N.W.2d 423, 251 Wis. 2d 135, 2002 Wisc. LEXIS 223, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ahrens-v-town-of-fulton-wis-2002.