Gibson v. Kountze Independent School District

552 S.W.2d 588, 1977 Tex. App. LEXIS 3029
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 26, 1977
DocketNo. 7852
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 552 S.W.2d 588 (Gibson v. Kountze Independent School District) 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
Gibson v. Kountze Independent School District, 552 S.W.2d 588, 1977 Tex. App. LEXIS 3029 (Tex. Ct. App. 1977).

Opinion

STEPHENSON, Justice.

This is a suit by fifteen property owners against the members of the Board of Equalization, the members of the Board of Trustees and the Tax Assessor-Collector of the Kountze Independent School District. The suit is a direct attack upon the assessment and levy of ad valorem taxes by the School District for the year 1975 upon plaintiffs’ properties in the category of “rural land” and “timber land”. Trial was by jury, and judgment was rendered upon the verdict denying plaintiffs all relief.

A brief statement as to the position taken by plaintiffs is that the School District put into effect for the tax year 1975 a program of re-appraisal and re-evaluation of rural lands without any attempt to re-appraise or re-evaluate other categories of property in the District. We quote from plaintiffs’ brief as follows:

“The thrust of plaintiffs’ complaint is not that their lands are overvalued for [590]*590tax purposes; that, in our opinion, is not the test of discrimination, illegality and unconstitutionality. Our complaint is that no effort was made by defendants to equalize the values placed on the other properties with the values placed on rural lands of plaintiffs and others, and that such action resulted in plaintiffs and other owners of rural land having to bear more than their fair share of the burden of operating the School District. This, in our opinion, is the test of discrimination, illegality and unconstitutionality. This is a substantial right that may be asserted and enforced in the Courts.”
A part of the jury findings are, in substance, as follows:
(10) That the Board of Equalization did not fail to equalize the tax roll for the year 1975 as nearly as possible;
(13) That the School District’s tax roll does not assess plaintiffs’ rural land at substantially higher values than real estate in the City of Kountze, relative to each other;
(15) That the School District’s tax roll does not assess plaintiffs’ rural land at substantially higher values than improvements on rural land, relative to each other;
(17) That the School District’s tax roll does not assess plaintiffs’ rural land at substantially higher values than real property subdivisions outside the City of Kountze, relative to each other.
(19) That the School District assessed the corporate plaintiffs’ property at substantially the same percent of its market value as was fixed on the great bulk of the remainder of the property on the tax roll;
(20) That the Kirby Lumber Corporation land and timber had a fair cash market value in the School District of not less than $189 per acre on January 1, 1975;
(21) That the Champion International Corporation land and timber had a fair cash market value in the School District of not less than $168 per acre on January 1, 1975;
(22) That Southland Paper Mills Corporation land and timber had a fair cash market value in the School District of not less than $169 per acre on January 1, 1975;
(23) That Temple-Eastex land and timber had a fair cash market value in the School District of not less than $169 per acre on January 1, 1975.

In its brief the School District admits that a plan for re-evaluation of the entire district was begun in 1975 but not completed. The result was an increase in the assessed values of plaintiffs’ land and no general increase on property in the City' of Kountze and rural subdivisions. However, the School District denies the result was discrimination, because it is urged that the rural lands had been undervalued in previous years. It is argued that a disproportionate increase in taxes does not necessarily result in a disproportionate assessment; that the discrimination can be proven only by comparing the result as it relates to true market value.

To be successful in this appeal, plaintiffs must show the School District tax plan resulted in plaintiffs’ paying more than their fair share of the taxes. They must show the plan would discriminate against them by assessing their properties at a greater percentage of the true value than the percentage assessed for the properties in other categories. In the answers to special issues 13,15,17, and 19, as set out above, the jury findings were to the contrary. Plaintiffs have points of error that those findings have no support and insufficient support in the evidence. We consider only the evidence favorable to the jury findings in passing upon the no-evidence points, and the entire record in passing upon the insufficient-evidence points.

It is first noted that in the answers to special issues 20, 21, 22, and 23, the jury found the cash market value of the land and timber of the four corporate plaintiffs as of January 1, 1975, to be not less than certain figures varying from $168 to $189 per acre. It is thus apparent that the jury [591]*591findings do not establish the cash market value of either the plaintiffs’ properties or the other categories of properties on the tax roll.

Bear in mind that plaintiffs had to secure jury findings that, under the plan, plaintiffs’ properties were assessed at a higher percentage of true value than the properties assessed in other categories. In the absence of such jury findings, to secure a rendition of this case, they must show that contention was established as a matter of law; to secure a remand of this case, plaintiffs must show that the contrary jury findings were clearly wrong or manifestly unjust. They have failed to make either showing.

There is much evidence in this record that property in the City of Kountze was economically depressed, that land in the rural areas had experienced substantial increase in market value, and that the rural tax assessment had been too low in past years.

Plaintiffs called many witnesses, including two licensed real estate agents, but they failed to offer testimony as to the cash market value of their properties. All denied they had an opinion as to such value. The person employed by the School District to appraise the rural land was called by plaintiffs as an adverse witness. He testified he made a mass appraisal and did not go on each individual tract and count the trees. He first classified the land as either open or timberland and within the timberland as practically no merchantable timber, some on it or a whole lot on it. The bare land was appraised at $150 per acre, and the above three classifications added to the bare land value at $100, $200, and $300 per acre. This witness prepared a written appraisal for the School District which plaintiffs offered in evidence. This written appraisal showed the total number of acres owned by each of the corporate plaintiffs and the total appraised value of each of their properties. In their brief, the plaintiffs have divided the total acreage into the total value, and the result is the four figures the jury found the cash market value to be not less than, as shown above in the jury findings. Plaintiffs argue that such values are conclusive and the School District is bound by them. It is admitted the assessed values of the lands of these corporate plaintiffs are 60 percent of those market values set forth in the jury findings.

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610 S.W.2d 551 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1980)
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Bluebook (online)
552 S.W.2d 588, 1977 Tex. App. LEXIS 3029, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gibson-v-kountze-independent-school-district-texapp-1977.