AMERICAN MOBILEHOME ASSOCIATION, INC. v. Dolan

553 P.2d 758, 191 Colo. 433, 1976 Colo. LEXIS 650
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedAugust 23, 1976
Docket26866
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 553 P.2d 758 (AMERICAN MOBILEHOME ASSOCIATION, INC. v. Dolan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
AMERICAN MOBILEHOME ASSOCIATION, INC. v. Dolan, 553 P.2d 758, 191 Colo. 433, 1976 Colo. LEXIS 650 (Colo. 1976).

Opinion

MR. JUSTICE HODGES

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the district court declaring unconstitutional, in its application, the ad valorem tax imposed on certain types of mobile homes, or so-called “movable structures.” We reverse.

The disputed tax statute was enacted by the legislature in response to the rapid evolution of mobile homes into residential housing of a substantially permanent and immobile nature. Previously, these movable structures had not been subject to a property tax such as is levied upon more conventional residences. The legislature accordingly placed an ad valorem tax on certain large mobile homes or movable structures, and it eliminated the graduated specific ownership tax previously imposed on such homes. See section 42-3-101(3) and sections 39-5-201 et seq., C.R.S. 1973.

A “movable structure” was defined as “any wheeled vehicle exceeding either eight feet in width or thirty-two feet in length excluding towing gear and bumpers, without motive power, which is designed and commonly used for occupancy by persons for residential purposes, in either temporary or permanent locations, and which may be drawn over the public highways by a motor vehicle.” Section 39-1-102(8), C.R.S. 1973. These structures were to be taxed on an assessed value of 30% of their actual value, as determined by depreviation tables, and were to be collected by the department of revenue.

By comparison, conventional residences are valued by individualized appraisals and the taxes imposed on them are assessed by the respective county assessors in each county. By statute, the taxes on such homes are to be levied according to 30% of their actual value. Section 39-1-104(1), C.R.S. 1973. However, the parties in this case have stipulated that county assessors in practice have used a considerably smaller percentage of actual value to arrive at the taxable value for conventional residences.

*436 Plaintiffs-appellees, individually and on behalf of the class of similarly circumstanced owners of movable structures, brought this suit to challenge the constitutionality of the purported higher taxes falling on movable structures than on conventional residences. The district court found this de facto disparity in tax rates to be contrary to the legislative intent to treat both movable structures and conventional residences uniformly. It therefore held that the tax on movable structures, in excess of the tax actually imposed on conventional residences of equal value, violated the Uniformity of Taxation Clause, Colo. Const. Art. X, § 3, and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The court also held that the use of a standard depreciation schedule, rather than the individual appraisal method, for determining the actual value of movable structures was arbitrary and capricious and therefore unconstitutional. Finally, it ruled that the owners of movable structures were denied equal protection of the law because they, unlike owners of conventional residences, had no procedures available to them to protest erroneous assessments.

This case only pertains to those taxes assessed in 1974. In 1975, the Colorado legislature repealed the ad valorem tax on movable structures and re-imposed a specific ownership tax on them. Colo. Sess. Laws 1975, ch. 343, § 30 at 1473.

I.

The trial court held that it was the legislative-intent to impose a taxing scheme that was uniform on both movable structures and conventional residences. It based this finding primarily on the language of section 42-3-101(3), C.R.S. 1973, which states:

“It is further declared that the unique nature of movable structures requires that, while the registration requirements of this article are appropriate for the identification of such structures, the continued development of such structures into residential housing of a more permanent and immobile nature requires that such structures be made subject to the ad valorem method of taxation in a manner similar to the taxation of other more permanent structures used for residential purposes.”

Because this section stated that movable structures were to be taxed in a method “similar” to that for more conventional residences, the trial court concluded that different tax rates between the two structures was unconstitutional.

In our view, however, the legislature did not intend to place movable structures and conventional residences into the same taxable class. The above quoted section was merely a legislative declaration that movable structures should be taxed on an ad valorem basis as are more conventional residences, but it did not either explicitly or implicitly state that movable structures must be treated on a parity with conventional residences. Because two types or classes of property are both subjected to *437 an ad valorem taxing scheme does not preclude the legislature from applying different rates and different means for determining value. See, e.g., People ex rel. Iron Silver Min. Co. v. Henderson, 12 Colo. 369, 21 P. 144 (1888).

That the legislature did intend to place movable structures into a different taxable class is demonstrated by the different procedures it established to assess and collect ad valorem taxes and the separate statutory treatment it gave to movable structures. For example, section 39-5-201, C.R.S. 1973 declared that “by reason of the unique nature of such property [movable structures], administration of the imposition and collection of such tax can best be accomplished by the department of revenue acting through its authorized agents in each county,” rather than the county ássessor. Section 39-5-203, C.R.S. 1973, infra, requires that the value of movable structures be computed by a standard depreciation schedule, rather than by individualized appraisals. Finally, section 39-5-204, C.R.S. 1973, requires that taxes on movable structures be payable in just one installment on January 1 of each year, and that delinquent taxes be collected by distraint, seizure, and sale of the movable structures — again, unlike the case of conventional houses.

Because the legislature treated movable structures as a distinct class for purposes of assessment and collection, the ensuing happenstance of higher taxable rates on such structures is not critical, so long as these rates are imposed uniformly on the class or type of property involved. In District 50 Metropolitan Recreation District v. Burnside, 167 Colo. 425, 448 P.2d 788 (1968), the controlling principle of law applicable here is set forth as follows:

“Under the ‘uniformity of taxation’ clause of the state constitution, as well as the ‘due process of law’ and the ‘equal protection of the law’ provisions relied on by the plaintiffs, the legislature is not prohibited from defining ‘various classes of real and personal property,’ which may be taxed for a specific purpose.

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Bluebook (online)
553 P.2d 758, 191 Colo. 433, 1976 Colo. LEXIS 650, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/american-mobilehome-association-inc-v-dolan-colo-1976.