Burns v. Herberger

498 P.2d 536, 17 Ariz. App. 462, 1972 Ariz. App. LEXIS 732
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedJune 29, 1972
Docket1 CA-CIV 1618
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 498 P.2d 536 (Burns v. Herberger) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Burns v. Herberger, 498 P.2d 536, 17 Ariz. App. 462, 1972 Ariz. App. LEXIS 732 (Ark. Ct. App. 1972).

Opinion

JACOBSON, Judge.

This appeal questions the valuation practices for ad valorem tax purposes of the Department of Property Valuation and the Maricopa County Assessor.

Plaintiffs-appellees, G. R. Herberger, Katherine Kierland Herberger, Herberger Enterprises, Inc., Scottsdale Ranches, Inc., and Central Arizona Development Co., Inc. (hereinafter collectively referred to as Herberger), are the owners of various parcels of unimproved real property situated in Maricopa County, Arizona. During the tax years 1968 and 1969, the taxing authorities of the State of Arizona and Maricopa County placed various valuations on these parcels for tax purposes. Herberger, being dissatisfied with the valuations placed on the properties, sought administrative relief, paid his taxes under protest, and subsequently brought suit in superior court against the taxing and collecting agents of the state and county, seeking a refund of the taxes paid for these two years. This action was based by Herberger upon the proposition that he was forced to bear a discriminatory and unfair tax burden, because the taxing authorities improperly and without statutory authority classified and appraised the Herberger properties erroneously.

The Herberger properties consist of three parcels referred to as the “Section Ten Property”, the “Burson Property”, and the “Shea Property”. The trial court found that the manner of assessment of the Shea property for the year 1968 and 1969 was proper and denied relief to Her-berger on this property. Herberger has perfected a cross appeal as to this ruling. As to the Section Ten property, the trial court found that the manner of assessment for the taxing years in question was discriminatory and illegal and ordered the refund of taxes paid on the assessed valuation of the property in excess of $7 per acre. Appellants have sought a review of this ruling. In regard to the Burson property, the trial court did not rule on the-constitutionality of the assessment, but found that the purported increase in valuation made by the county assessor for the year 1969 was procedurally invalid and' therefore ordered a refund of taxes paid' on the assessment in excess of that set in. 1968. Appellants have also sought review of this ruling.

Since substantially different legal problems are presented by all three of these-properties, they will be discussed separately.

SECTION TEN PROPERTY

The Section Ten property, consisting of 640 acres, is located approximately four-miles east of Scottsdale Road and approximately five miles southeast of Carefree, Arizona. The property is relatively inaccessible and is completely surrounded by patented and federal and state lease land' known as the DC Ranch. The DC Ranch, consisting of approximately 30 sections of.' *465 contiguous land, has historically been used as a ranching unit. During 1969, an attempt was made to raise the assessed value of the DC Ranch to $275 per acre, but on appeal, the Board of State Property Tax Appeals, reinstated the $7 per acre assessed valuation figure. It is agreed by all parties that the topography and physical characteristics of the adjacent DC Ranch property and the Section Ten property are substantially the same.

The Section Ten property was initially purchased by Herberger in 1954 at $50 per acre. Herberger had no opinion as to the value of the property at the time of trial. However, an MAI appraiser, employed by the state, was of the opinion that the property had a present fair market value of $500 per acre. There was no other evidence of valuation for this property before the trial court.

Following its acquisition by Herberger, this property had been leased for grazing purposes. However, it was undisputed that since 1965 no cattle or sheep had actually been physically present on the property or had the property been leased. This section has a carrying capacity of only four animal units per section per year. (Carrying capacity is determined by the amount of feed available to support a grazing animal.) Based upon the agricultural manual promulgated by the Department of Property Valuation, the taxing authorities determined that the Section Ten property did not qualify as agricultural-grazing land, and therefore designated it as desert land with an assessed value of $275 per acre.

As previously indicated, the court reduced the assessed valuation of this property to $7 per acre, which is comparable with the surrounding DC Ranch property valuation. Herberger’s proof in support of this ruling was primarily limited to a showing of the similarity of the Section Ten property, both in use and physical characteristics, to the DC Ranch and arguing therefrom that both properties should be assessed at the same rate. The state on the other hand contends that based upon the difference in use of the DC Ranch property and the Section Ten property, the difference in valuation was justified by the appropriate statutory enactment. In support of this difference in use, the state points out that the DC Ranch has been an operating ranch since 1912 and while the ranching operation does not utilize each and every part of the property every year, there were animals on the DC Ranch for the years 1967, 1968, and 1969 as verified by shipping tickets. The ranch is completely fenced or has natural barriers vitiating the need for fences; contains forest permit land; has watering capacity; and has been used almost exclusively for sheep grazing for the last four or five years. In contrast to this use, the Section Ten property has carried no livestock since 1965 and, having a carrying capacity of only four animals, it could not be economically operated as a ranch.

To determine whether the differences pointed out by the taxing authorities have validity under Arizona’s present statutory scheme of classification and valuation of real property for tax purposes, it is necessary to review that scheme in the light of legislative revisions resulting from the decision in Southern Pacific Co. v. Cochise County, 92 Ariz. 395, 377 P.2d 770 (1963).

Prior to the Southern Pacific case, the taxing statutes required that all real property in the state should be assessed at its “full cash value”. A.R.S. § 42-227. “Full cash value” was defined by former A.R.S. § 42-201, subsec. 1 (since repealed) as “the price at which property would sell if voluntarily offered for sale by the owner upon such terms as property is usually sold, and not the price which might be realized if the property were sold at forced sale.”

This statutory definition is closely related to what is generally referred to as “fair market value”. See State v. McDonald, 88 Ariz. 1, 352 P.2d 343 (1960).

The various county assessors of this state had traditionally ignored this legislative mandate and based valuation upon *466 various self-made classifications, the end result of which was a discriminatory and arbitrary taxing system which was rightfully struck down in the Southern Pacific case. (Decided January 9, 1963.)

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Bluebook (online)
498 P.2d 536, 17 Ariz. App. 462, 1972 Ariz. App. LEXIS 732, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/burns-v-herberger-arizctapp-1972.