Georgia-Pacific Corp. v. State Tax Commission

363 P.2d 1104, 228 Or. 112, 1961 Ore. LEXIS 364
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 26, 1961
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 363 P.2d 1104 (Georgia-Pacific Corp. v. State Tax Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Georgia-Pacific Corp. v. State Tax Commission, 363 P.2d 1104, 228 Or. 112, 1961 Ore. LEXIS 364 (Or. 1961).

Opinion

PEEEY, J.

We have carefully examined the record in this case and after full consideration, being of the opinion that the following written opinion of the trial court fully expresses our views, it is adopted as the opinion of this court:

“The Petitioners, Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and its' subsidiary, Coos Bay Timber Co., a corporation, were the owners of a sawmill and planing mill and a hardboard manufacturing plant in Bunker Hill, a sawmill in Millington, and a plywood plant and related facilities in Coquille, all in Coos County, Oregon, together with a timber supply to furnish said plants.

“The above mills and plants and timber were purchased from the Coos Bay Lumber Company, a corporation, on July 10, 1956, and have since been operated by the petitioners more or less in conjunction with each other. This was particularly true of the sawmills in Bunker Hill and Millington.

“During the year 1955 appraisals were made of these properties by appraisers of the State Tax Commission for the benefit of Coos County. The Chief Appraiser was Mr. Schuh who had had several years experience appraising industrial properties for the Tax Commission. Mr. Schuh did all, or practically all, of the appraising of the machinery and. equipment in [114]*114the subject plants. Mr. Ensign, who was comparatively new with the Commission as an appraiser, did the principal part of the appraising of the buildings involved. However, he worked directly and constantly under the advice and supervision of Mr. Schuh, and all his appraisal work was checked and approved by Mr. Schuh.

“The above mentioned properties were assessed by tax lot numbers and approximately 15 appeals taken thereon from the assessment by the assessor for the years 1957 and 1958 to the Board of Equalization of Coos County, which Board denied said appeals.

“Appeal was then taken from the Board of Equalization rulings to the State Tax Commission. The appeal to this Court is from the ruling of the State Tax Commission, which lowered the overall assessments against the petitioners on the properties involved.

“Before the Tax Commission and before this Court, the contested assessments were grouped as follows, and without reference to particular tax lot numbers:

“For the year 1957
“COQUILLE, OREGON
Machinery and equipment Buildings and improvements.
MILLINGTON, OREGON
Machinery and equipment only.
BUNKER HILL, OREGON Sawmill
Machinery and equipment Buildings and improvements
Hardboard plant
Machinery and equipment Buildings and improvements.

[115]*115“For the year 1958 these same assessments were contested as for the year 1957 and with the addition for the year 1958 of buildings and improvements at Millington.

“The Hearings Officer for the State Tax Commission took several hundred pages of testimony in the matter and some 49 exhibits were introduced, many of them quite voluminous, consisting of the work sheets, reports, etc., of the various appraisers.

“The entire record made before the Hearings Officer was submitted to this Court together with briefs and oral arguments, but without any further testimony.

“The Tax Commission by Opinion and Order No. VL 59-594, as above mentioned, lowered the overall assessment of the Petitioners for both years 1957 and 1958. They did increase particular parts of the 1957 assessment to conform generally to the appraisals as made by their appraisers in 1955, after making use of their depreciation and trending factors. They agreed with the Petitioners that assessor’s figures for 1957 did not reflect ‘true cash value.’

“The petitioners by their petition and brief set out the primary issue as follows:

‘Did the appraisals made by the administrative staff of the Commission in 1955, as brought up to date by the formula used by such staff, correctly arrive at the market value of the properties in question as of January 1, 1957 and January 1, 1958?’

“They then set out in the brief ten (10) issues designated ‘corollary issues’ which will not be set forth verbatim herein.

“The same matters stated in somewhat different language are contained in Petitioner’s petition under ‘Grounds for Petitioner’s Contentions, Par. XVn.’

[116]*116“They then make two contentions under Par. XVIII and XIX, which they designate jurisdictional issues in their brief. XVIII alleges in effect that the Commission had no legal right or authority to raise the assessed valuations of the machinery and equipment of the Coquille plant for the year 1957.

“Par. XIX alleges in effect that the Hearing Officer failed to make findings and conclusions as provided in ORS 306.535(1).

“Taking up this first jurisdictional question first, it is clear that the Petitioners must fail on that particular issue. They offered no proof whatever to substantiate such a claim. The order VL 59-594, attached to the petition itself on the first page thereof shows that such findings and conclusions were prepared and reviewed by the entire Commission. There was no duty on the Commission to introduce such findings in this Court. The presumption is in favor of their order, including that part mentioning the findings. Nothing has been offered to overcome that presumption or to prove the above claim of the Petitioners that no findings were made.

“Before taking up Petitioner’s ‘Primary issue’, it is well to note that so far as the year 1957 was concerned, the real issue before the Tax Commission was whether or not the Assessor’s assessment for that year was arrived at in the proper manner and whether it properly showed ‘market value’, ‘true cash value’ and ‘assessed value.’ The Commission found that it did not. I agree with their finding in that regard.

“At best, it could be called a ‘historical’ value that had been carried for many years with some variations. It was founded to some extent at least on the values submitted by the owners or their predecessors, and [117]*117carried on some kind of a verbal agreement, or at least acquiescence, by the taxpayers.

“In fairness to the Assessor, it must be remembered that he did not have sufficient or suitable personnel to make a real appraisement and was attempting' to do his best under the conditions. He apparently did not have the 1955 appraisal at the time of the January 1, 1957 assessment. Just why is not clear. But at least he did not use it until January 1, 1958.

“Chapter 306 ORS and following chapters give the State Tax Commission general supervisory power over the administration of assessment and tax laws and general supervision and control over the County Assessors and County Board of Equalization, with the general idea of seeing that all property is assessed and taxed according to law, to see that there is uniformity in assessments and equality of taxation.

“In order to better secure this uniformity and equality, the law has wisely given the State Tax Commission the power to make and publish rules and regulations to effectively carry out the purposes for which it is constituted.

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Related

Clark v. Department of Revenue
14 Or. Tax 221 (Oregon Tax Court, 1997)
Bauman v. Department of Revenue
6 Or. Tax 426 (Oregon Tax Court, 1976)
Astoria Plywood Corp. v. Department of Revenue
481 P.2d 58 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1971)
Georgia-Pacific Corp. v. State Tax Commission
390 P.2d 337 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1964)
Williams v. State Tax Commission
1 Or. Tax 265 (Oregon Tax Court, 1963)
Sproul v. State Tax Commission
1 Or. Tax 31 (Oregon Tax Court, 1962)
Strawn v. State Tax Commission
1 Or. Tax 98 (Oregon Tax Court, 1962)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
363 P.2d 1104, 228 Or. 112, 1961 Ore. LEXIS 364, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/georgia-pacific-corp-v-state-tax-commission-or-1961.