Carino v. Board of Commissioners

468 A.2d 1201, 79 Pa. Commw. 242, 1983 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 2211
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedDecember 29, 1983
DocketAppeal, No. 97 C.D. 1982
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 468 A.2d 1201 (Carino v. Board of Commissioners) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carino v. Board of Commissioners, 468 A.2d 1201, 79 Pa. Commw. 242, 1983 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 2211 (Pa. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinions

Opinion by

.Judge MacPhail,

Appellants1 have brought this appeal from an order of .the 'Court of Common Pleas of Armstrong County which dismissed a mandamus .action filed by Appellants who sought to compel the County Board of Assessment Appeals2 (Board) >to conduct a county-wide reassessment of real property. We affirm.

Appellants, who are taxpayers and property owners in Armstrong ¡County, filed the instant mandamus action3 on March 13, 1981, alleging therein that the Board has failed .to conduct a county-wide revision of [244]*244real property .assessments since 1956. Specifically, Appellants contend that the Board is required to complete a county-wide revised assessment on an annual basis pursuant to The Fourth to Eighth Class County Assessment Law (Law).4 The Board argues, .and the common pleas court found, that the Law ido.es not impose a mandatory duty on the Board to conduct such annual county-wide reassessments.

Our scope of review is limited to a determination of whether the common pleas court .abused its discretion or .committed an error of law when it denied mandamus relief. Rizzo v. Schmanek, 63 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 547, 439 A.2d 1296 (1981). Mandamus, of course, is an extraordinary writ “which lies to compel the performance of a ministerial act or mandatory duty where there is a clear legal right in the plaintiff, a corresponding duty in .the defendant, and a want of any other adequate remedy”. Wyoming Sand and Stone Co. v. Department of Revenue, 24 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 366, 369, 355 A.2d 860, 862 (1976), aff’d, 477 Pa. 488, 384 A.2d 1193 (1978). One who .sues in mandamus must demonstrate .an immediate and complete legal right to the demanded action. Moreover, mandamus .should never be invoked in a doubtful case. Board of Supervisors of North Coventry Township v. Silver Fox Corp., 10 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 646, 312 A.2d 833 (1973). Finally, mandamus will not lie to compel the performance of discretionary acts .except where .the failure to exercise discretion is arbitrary, fraudulent or based on an erroneous view of the Law. South Whitehall Township v. Department of Transportation, 11 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 558, 316 A.2d 104 (1974).

Appellants admit that they can find no case law which would compel the Board to perform the precise [245]*245duty at issue Aere, to wit, annual, county-wide, parcel-by-parcel assessments. Our independent research affirms tAat conclusion. Neither are Appellants ¡able ,to point to any .statutory law which categorically .states that the Board must perform such annual county-wide, paroel-.by-pareel assessments.

TAe issue presented by this appeal then is primarily one of statutory construction. Appellants argue that the Law requires annual county-wide reassessments, while .the Board Contends tAat only revised or updated assessment rolls need be made on an annual basis and .that county-wide reassessments are discretionary. Based on our interpretation of the Law, w:e conclude that county-wide, p arcel-by-pareel assessment revisions need not be conducted on an .annual basis.

TAe .object of statutory interpretation, of course, is to ascertain and effectuate the legislative intent and to give effect, if possible, .to all of the provisions of a statute. Section 1921(a) of the Statutory Construction Act of 1972, 1 Pa. O. <S. §1921 (a). "We .think a reading of the Law as a whole demonstrates countywide revisions of the assessment need not be conducted on an annual basis.

Our analysis begins with Section 602(a) of the Law, 72 P.S. §5453.602(a) which provides for the initial valuation and assessment of real property on a parcel-by-pareel basis. Section 601.1, 72 P.S. §5453.602 a, provides for periodic changes in the valuation of individual parcels under the following circumstances: 1) when improvements are made .to or removed from a property; 2) when land is divided and conveyed in smaller parcels or 3) when the economy depreciates or appreciates to .such an extent that real estate values, in general, are affected. If, as here, a “base year” valuation system is used, changes are expressed in terms of such “base year” values. A “base year” is [246]*246defined as “the year upon which real property market values are based for the most recent county-wide revision of assessment of real property. ...” ¡Section 102 of the Law, 72 P.'S. §5453.102 (emphasis added).5 Such value corrections may be made to an individual parcel of land for a particular year without requiring that all properties in the county be reasesssed that year. Callas v. Armstrong County Board of Assessment, 70 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 272, 453 A.2d 25 (1982).

Next, Section 602(b) of the Law, provides that in the first year following ,the initial county assessment or county-wide assessment revision, each political subdivision “shall, for that first year, reduce its tax rate, if. necessary, for the purpose of having the total amount of taxes levied for that year equal... not more than one hundred and five per centum of the total amount it levied on such properties the preceding year, notwithstanding the increased valuations of such properties under the new assessment system.” (Emphasis added.) We consider it clear that if such adjustments are required to be instituted in the first year following a county-wide revision, the county-wide revision must be intended to apply for longer than a one year period. We believe such revisions were not contemplated by the legislature as an annual event.

We also observe that different notice and appeal provisions are applicable depending on whether a “normal” assessment year is involved, as opposed to a year in which a pancel-by-paroel revision of assessments has been accomplished. In years when countywide revisions are not made, the Board need only send notices, under .Section 701(a) of the Law, 72 P.S. §5453.701(a), to property owners whose actual property value has been changed from the preceding as[247]*247sessment roll, whose property value had not been separately fixed in the preceding assessment roll or when the predetermined assessment ratio has been changed. In any year in which a county-wide revision of assessments is proposed, however,. “All property owners shall be notified ... of the value of the new assessment and the value of their old assessment. ” Section 701(c) of the Law, 72 P.S. §5453.701 (e) (emphasis added). Moreover,-appeals during “normal” assessment years may be filed within forty days of notification of a change in the .assessment while only a thirty day appeal period is permitted in years involving countywide revisions. Bee Section 701 of the Law. We think these differences in notification and appeals procedures further demonstrate that a county-wide revision was not contemplated by .the legislature as an annual requirement.

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Bluebook (online)
468 A.2d 1201, 79 Pa. Commw. 242, 1983 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 2211, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carino-v-board-of-commissioners-pacommwct-1983.