Bullseye PS III LP v. Harris County Appraisal District

365 S.W.3d 427, 2011 WL 2432118
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 3, 2011
Docket01-09-01139-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 365 S.W.3d 427 (Bullseye PS III LP v. Harris County Appraisal District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bullseye PS III LP v. Harris County Appraisal District, 365 S.W.3d 427, 2011 WL 2432118 (Tex. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinions

OPINION

EVELYN V. KEYES, Justice.

In this property tax valuation ease, appellant, Bullseye PS III LP (“Bullseye”), challenges the trial court’s grant of a plea to the jurisdiction in favor of the Harris County Appraisal District (“HCAD”) on Bullseye’s claim that HCAD excessively and unequally appraised its property.1 In three issues on appeal, Bullseye contends that the trial court erred in (1) granting HCAD’s plea to the jurisdiction because Bullseye’s agent did not enter into a valuation agreement with HCAD’s chief appraiser at the protest hearing; (2) denying Bullseye’s motion for continuance; and (3) denying rehearing of Bullseye’s motion to compel depositions.

We affirm the trial court’s judgment dismissing this case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

Background

Bullseye owns a 1.36 acre tract of property located in Harris County, Texas, and it maintains a storage unit facility on that property. For the 2008 tax year, HCAD initially appraised the property as having a market value of $6,283,781. Bullseye filed a protest of the initial valuation with the Harris County Appraisal Review Board (“the Board”) and appointed O’Connor & Associates, a tax consulting firm, as its agent for the administrative protest process.

A three-member panel of the Board held a hearing on Bullseye’s protest. At the hearing, Darren Blakemore, an O’Connor employee, represented Bullseye, and Mike Garcia appeared as the representative for HCAD. Before the hearing began, Blake-more completed a “Hearing Affidavit.” stating that his opinion for the value of the property was $6,283,781 — the same amount at which HCAD had initially appraised the property. On the same form, [430]*430Garda, as the appraisal district representative, swore that the testimony that he would present to the Board was “true and correct.” The parties then offered the following sworn testimony at the hearing:

[Garcia]: Account Number ending in three. My name is Mike Garcia, I am under oath. (Inaudible.)
[Blakemore]: Sorry. My name is Darren Blakemore. My opinion of the value for the property is $6,283
Board Member: Okay. Ready for you to sign. And, once again, the three of us have also signed the affidavit. We have both the disclosure statement signed, the affidavit signed. The opinion of value from the agent is $6,283,781. And we’re ready now for a description of the property.
[Garcia]: [Account Number.] Property location is 4250 Southwest Freeway, Suite 600, a/k/a Bullseye Storage. This is a 4396 mini warehouse built in 2000. Net rentable area of 61,452 square feet. Acreage of 1.3641 acres. It’s the opinion of the district that the property is valued at $6,283,781.
Board Member: Okay. Comment, Mr. Blakemore? Do you want to say anything more?
[Blakemore]: No, sir.
Board Member: Okay.
[Blakemore]: No, sir.
Board Member: All right. And any questions here? I guess you will make a recommendation, or did you already do that? You guys agreed on it, so really it’s out of our jurisdiction anyway.
[Garcia]: Oh, you’ve agreed to this value? Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that.
Board Member: Yeah, he agreed to the noticed value.
[Garcia]: Sorry about that.
Board Member: Okay? And you do too, right?
[Garcia]: I agree with it also.
Board Member: All right. We’re going to close testimony. Both the agent and the appraiser have agreed on the noticed value of $6,283,781. And that will be the final figure for tax year 2008. That will conclude the hearing.

After the hearing, the Board mailed Bull-seye an order determining protest, confirming the final 2008 appraised value at $6,283,781. The order included the following notice:

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO APPEAL THIS ORDER TO THE DISTRICT COURT. IF YOU WANT TO APPEAL, YOU SHOULD CONSULT AN ATTORNEY IMMEDIATELY. YOU MUST FILE A PETITION WITH THE DISTRICT COURT WITHIN 45 DAYS OF THE DATE YOU RECEIVE THIS NOTICE.

Within forty-five days after receiving the order, Bullseye brought a suit for judicial review of the Board’s decision in the district court, contending that HCAD and the Board had excessively and unequally appraised the property. HCAD filed a plea to the jurisdiction arguing that, because Bullseye’s agent and HCAD’s representative had reached an agreement regarding the value of the property at the hearing, this agreement rendered the valuation amount final and precluded Bull-seye’s suit for judicial review under Tax Code section 1.111(e). HCAD contended that, although Tax Code section 41.45(c) provides that the chief appraiser is to appear at each protest hearing before the Board, the chief appraiser may delegate this authority to appraisal district employees pursuant to Tax Code section 6.05(c). Because HCAD’s representative and Bull-seye’s agent agreed that the property should be valued at $6,283,781, and this [431]*431agreement was reached before the Board determined Bullseye’s protest, the valuation became final, and, therefore, according to HCAD, Bullseye could not challenge the valuation in a suit for judicial review.

In response, Bullseye contended that HCAD did not meet the requirements for establishing an agreement pursuant to section 1.111(e) because that section requires an agreement between the property owner or the owner’s agent and the chief appraiser, and an agreement between the owner’s agent and a representative of the appraisal district does not suffice. Because HCAD only presented evidence of an agreement between the owner’s agent and the appraisal district, which is distinct from the chief appraiser, Bullseye argued that the trial court should deny HCAD’s plea to the jurisdiction. In its response, Bullseye also moved for a continuance, alleging that HCAD’s discovery responses were “contradictory and indicated that until recently [HCAD’s] position was that no agreement existed.” Bullseye requested a continuance to conduct discovery on “[HCAD’s] contradictory position regarding the purported agreement” with Bull-seye’s agent. Bullseye also requested a rehearing of its motion to compel depositions of HCAD employees “[i]n light of the contradictory discovery responses and [HCAD’s] position that the court lacks jurisdiction based upon an assertion of factual circumstances.”

The trial court granted HCAD’s plea to the jurisdiction and dismissed Bullseye’s claim. This appeal followed.

Standard of Review

We review a trial court’s ruling on a plea to the jurisdiction de novo. Tex. Dep’t of Parks & Wildlife v. Miranda, 133 S.W.3d 217, 226, 228 (Tex.2004). We construe the pleadings liberally in favor of the plaintiff while considering the pleader’s intent. See id. A trial court decides a plea to the jurisdiction by reviewing the pleadings and any evidence relevant to the jurisdictional inquiry. Bland Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Blue, 34 S.W.3d 547, 555 (Tex.2000).

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Bluebook (online)
365 S.W.3d 427, 2011 WL 2432118, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bullseye-ps-iii-lp-v-harris-county-appraisal-district-texapp-2011.