Cameron County Appraisal Review Board v. Creditbanc Savings Ass'n

763 S.W.2d 577, 1988 Tex. App. LEXIS 3305, 1988 WL 141963
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 30, 1988
Docket13-87-480-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 763 S.W.2d 577 (Cameron County Appraisal Review Board v. Creditbanc Savings Ass'n) 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
Cameron County Appraisal Review Board v. Creditbanc Savings Ass'n, 763 S.W.2d 577, 1988 Tex. App. LEXIS 3305, 1988 WL 141963 (Tex. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinions

OPINION

UTTER, Justice.

Appellees, Creditbanc Savings Association and B.P. Newman Investment Co., filed suit seeking judicial review of the decision of appellant, Cameron County Appraisal Review Board, to add certain property to the 1984 Appraisal Roll. This properly is an improvement known as the Palm Terrace Apartments. The trial court, sitting without a jury, found that the complained-of order issued by appellant was “contrary to law” and rendered judgment in favor of appellees. We reverse the judgment of the trial court and remand.

Pursuant to Tex.R.Civ.P. 263, the parties stipulated that the case would be submitted upon an Agreed Statement of Facts, which may be summarized as follows:

The real property which is the subject of this action consists of an improvement which is commonly referred to as the Palm Terrace Apartments and land which is legally described as Lot 4 of Block A of Treasure Hills Plaza Shopping Center Subdivision.

During the 1984 Tax Year, the land was appraised by the Cameron County Appraisal District at a total value of $175,980.00. This amount, which was placed on the 1984 Appraisal Roll, does not include any value for the apartment complex, although those improvements were located on the land and properly subject to tax in 1984.

The owner of the property during 1984 was the Jefferson Trust Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of appellee Creditbanc. Jefferson Trust timely paid the 1984 taxes which were assessed on the basis of the appraisal. Tax Certificates were issued which attested that all taxes due on the land for 1984 had been paid in full.

On January 13, 1986, the Appraisal District issued a Notice of Appraisal Value to appellee B.P. Newman Investment Company 1 which reflected a purported addition to the value of the disputed property for the 1984 Tax Year. The addition was based on “previously omitted” improvements (i.e. the apartment complex) which were appraised at $3,918,550.00, thereby raising the total value of the property to $4,094,530.00. The Appraisal District subsequently reduced the total value from $4,094,530.00 to $2,133,700.00 (including land value of $175,-980.00 and improvement value of $1,957,-720.00).

On March 6, 1986, appellees filed a Notice of protest with appellant by which they claimed that the Appraisal District “improperly reappraised and/or reassessed the [disputed property] for 1984.

On April 23, 1986, appellant issued an Order Determining Protest wherein it ruled that “the back asessment for improvements in the amount of $11,957,720.00 for [579]*5791984” was valid since “said improvement had been previously omitted from the appraisal roll.” Appellant also issued a corrected 1984 tax bill which assessed an additional $28,492.64 in taxes on the disputed property. Appellees filed a Notice of Appeal with appellant on May 8,1986. Appellant denied appellees appeal and suit was filed in the district court. The trial court rendered judgment for appellees.

By its first point of error, appellant asserts the trial court erred in rendering judgment for the appellees because the judgment was based on the false conclusion that the improvements were “reappraised” by appellant when, in fact, they had been completely omitted from the 1984 Appraisal Roll.

Tex.Tax Code Ann. § 25.21(a) (Vernon 1982) provides:

Omitted Property
(a) If the chief appraiser discovers that real property was not taxed in any one of the 10 preceding years or that personal property was not taxed in one of the two preceding years, he shall appraise the property as of January 1 of each year that it escaped taxation and enter the property and its appraised value in the appraisal records.

Appellant asserts that its Order Determining Protest was based on the Appraisal District’s legitimate revaluation of omitted improvements as provided for in section 25.21, and therefore should not have been overturned by the trial court.

At the outset, it should be noted that both the original 1984 Appraisal Roll Tax Receipt and Tax Certificates which were issued specifically states that only the “land” value was being assessed. Appraisal Roll Tax Receipt has the word “land” typed in block designated as: “This years appraised value.” The Tax Certificate shows that the Tax Certificate was issued covering the “land” only, the block indicating “improvements” was not checked. Therefore, there could be no doubt by the taxpayer that they were only paying for taxes assessed on the “land” value.

Section 1.04 of the Properly Tax Code which defines the applicable terms used in the Code states:

Section 1.04. Definitions
In this title:
(1) “Property” means any matter or thing capable of private ownership.
(2) “Real property” means:
(A) land;
(B) an improvement;
(C) a mine or quarry;
(D) a mineral in place;
(E) standing timber; or
(F) an estate or interest, other than a mortgage or deed of trust creating a lien on property or an interest securing payment or performance of an obligation, in a property enumerated in Paragraphs (A) through (E) of this subdivision.
(3) “Improvement” means:
(A) a building, structure, fixture, or fence erected on or affixed to land; or
(B) a transportable structure that is designed to be occupied for residential or business purposes, whether or not it is affixed to land, if the owner of the structure owns the land on which it is located, unless the structure is unoccupied and held for sale or normally is located at a particular place only temporarily.

The appellees rely upon the 1972 PreTax Code case of Yamini v. Gentle, 488 S.W.2d 839 (Tex.Civ.App.—Dallas 1972, writ ref’d n.r.e.).

The applicable statute in effect at the time of the Yamini decision was article 7146 Vernons Ann.Civ.St. (1960). This statue reads as follows:

“Real property for the purpose of taxation shall be construed to include the land itself, whether laid out in town lots or otherwise and all buildings, structures and improvements, or other fixtures of whatsoever kind thereon ...”

However, the Dallas Court in Yamini did not discuss the separability of land and improvements as both being subject to taxation as specific entities. The Court con-[580]*580eluded that portion of its opinion by stating:

Under the stipulation of the parties made in this case it is evident that none of these statutes is applicable for the simple reason that the real property in question had been assessed in due form on the 1968 tax rolls.

However, in our case, the parties stipulated that “said appraisal included land value only,” thus agreeing that the improvements had not been appraised. If the improvements had not been appraised, they must have necessarily been omitted and Sec.

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Cameron County Appraisal Review Board v. Creditbanc Savings Ass'n
763 S.W.2d 577 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1988)

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Bluebook (online)
763 S.W.2d 577, 1988 Tex. App. LEXIS 3305, 1988 WL 141963, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cameron-county-appraisal-review-board-v-creditbanc-savings-assn-texapp-1988.