Doneghy v. State

334 S.W.2d 506, 1960 Tex. App. LEXIS 2139
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided February 15, 1960·No. 6920·Published·Cited by 8 cases

Opinions

CHAPMAN, Justice.

This is an appeal from a summary judgment granted by the trial court for the State of Texas and Collingsworth County, appellees, against appellant, James Done-ghy, for delinquent taxes for the years 1947 and 1948. The taxes had been assessed against appellant’s shares of stock in the City State Bank of Wellington.

Appellant’s appeal is predicated upon the insufficiency in form and substance of the Motion for Summary Judgment; upon the proposition that he having alleged non-uniformity and inequality in the assessment there existed a material issue of fact; upon the error of the trial court in holding that his injunction suit enjoining the collection of taxes for a period of time tolled the four-year statute of limitation, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. art. 7298; and upon a holding by the court that an alleged tender by appellant in Cause No. 3527 in the trial court is binding upon him in the case at bar. Because of our view of the case the last point mentioned on the question of admissibility of evidence is immaterial and requires no treatment by us in this opinion.

Though we would not say the Motion for Summary Judgment was in the best form we believe it was sufficient to justify the judgment rendered. It included affidavits of the County Attorney and County Judge; affidavits of the Commissioners Court at the time and their certificates of approval of the correctness of the assessments; and certified copies of the delinquent tax rolls for the years involved showing the assessments of the owners of the shares of stock in said bank, including appellant’s shares. This motion was filed on June 5, 1958, and granted on January 19, 1959. If we have read the transcript properly appellant did not file anything whatever in this interim, so the court had before it to counter appel-lees’ Motion for Summary Judgment, the delinquent tax records, and the affidavits just described only appellant’s plea in abatement and answer filed in response to appellees’ petition. In his unsworn answer he raises the limitation question and illegality of assessments for the years involved. He nowhere asserts in any pleadings or any place in the record that he was [508] substantially injured, nor does lie allege any facts by which the trial court could so find. His pleadings assert:

“The defendant would further show unto the court that the alleged taxes for the years 1947 and 1948 are on an assessed valuation of said bank stock of 60 per cent of its value, and that other personal property in said county for said two years of 1947 and 1948 are assessed of the valuation of 80 per cent of its value, and the real property in Collingsworth County for the years 1947 and 1948 are assessed at the valuation of 14.63 per cent of its value which is not equal and uniform as provided by law.”

From the pleadings just quoted if appellant owned only personal property in the county the system of taxation by which his bank stock was assessed on the basis of 60 per cent of its value, and other personal property upon the valuation of 80 per cent of its value, appellant was benefited rather than substantially injured. If he owned any substantial amount of real property in the county, his benefit from a valuation of 14.63 per cent of its value might very well more than offset the assessment of his bank stock at 60 per cent of its value. So far as the record is concerned there is no showing that appellant owned any property in the county other than the bank stock upon which the suit for delinquent taxes was based. Accordingly, there was not any showing before the court or even any inference of a substantial injury to appellant because of his alleged inequality and lack of uniformity in the assessments.

The Supreme Court majority has held that where an attack is made because the taxing authority has followed an illegal system of taxation, the taxpayer, in order to prevail, must show that the use of the plan worked to his substantial injury. State v. Whittenburg, 153 Tex. 205, 265 S.W.2d 569. If we understand their latest pronouncement on the subject they have also held that the taxpayer must show in dollars that he is worse off. State v. Federal Land Bank of Houston, Tex., 329 S.W.2d 847, para. 1, lines 16 and 17 of Syl. 4. That question is not raised in this record even by inference.

As heretofore stated, the trial court had before it in the Motion for Summary Judgment the delinquent tax records on the property involved. These constitute prima facie proof of the true and correct amount of taxes due by the taxpayer. Article 7326, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St.; Billingsley v. City of Fort Worth, Tex.Civ.App., 278 S.W.2d 869 (N.R.E.); Stone v. City of Dallas, Tex.Civ.App., 244 S.W.2d 937 (writ dismissed); City of Orange, Texas v. Levingston Shipbuilding Co., 5 Cir., 258 F.2d 240.

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Doneghy v. State, 334 S.W.2d 506, 1960 Tex. App. LEXIS 2139 (Tex. Ct. App. 1960).

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Doneghy v. State
334 S.W.2d 506 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1960)