Honeywell International, Inc. v. Denton Central Appraisal District and Denton County Appraisal Review Board

441 S.W.3d 495, 2014 WL 1062214, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 3030
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 19, 2014
Docket08-12-00139-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 441 S.W.3d 495 (Honeywell International, Inc. v. Denton Central Appraisal District and Denton County Appraisal Review Board) 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
Honeywell International, Inc. v. Denton Central Appraisal District and Denton County Appraisal Review Board, 441 S.W.3d 495, 2014 WL 1062214, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 3030 (Tex. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

OPINION

YVONNE T. RODRIGUEZ, Justice.

In this ad-valorem tax case, Honeywell International, Inc. appeals the trial court’s take-nothing judgment in favor of the Den-ton Central Appraisal District (“the District”) and the Denton County Appraisal Review Board (“the Board”). In five issues, Honeywell contends that: (1) it was entitled to attorney’s fees; (2) the trial court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law “are replete with factual and legal errors[;]” and (3) the District illegally changed the appraised value of Honeywell’s business personal property after the 2003 appraisal roll had been certified. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Honeywell owns business personal property in Denton County. 1 Under the Texas Tax Code, the owner of business personal property must render the property for taxation on January 1 of each year. 2 See TexTax Code Ann. § 22.01(a) (West Supp. 2013). Although Honeywell filed a rendition for the 2001 tax year, it did not for the 2002 tax year. Further, Honeywell failed to file a rendition for the 2003 tax year by the April 15th deadline.

Honeywell, however, took advantage of a one-time amnesty provision enacted by the legislature by timely filing an amnesty rendition for the 2003 tax year. 3 Honeywell’s amnesty rendition, which actually consisted of several documents, “rendered a different value for certain categories of tangible personal property and rendered new categories of items.” The value of the personal business property identified in the 2003 amnesty rendition was $102,856,873; in the 2001 rendition, $2,419,540.

Because the amnesty rendition was filed after Honeywell’s property had been assessed for 2003 taxes, the appraisal value upon which Honeywell’s original tax bill was based did not include the value of the omitted property disclosed in the amnesty rendition filed later in 2003. Accordingly, the District prepared supplemental ap *498 praisal records and issued a new appraisal notice for the 2003 tax year that included an increased property appraisal encompassing the previously omitted property.

Honeywell filed a protest of the District’s “re-appraisal” with the Board, asserting that the “Texas Tax Code does not authorize any change in property account value after certification.” The Board ruled in favor of the District and denied Honeywell’s protest. After receiving a corrected 2003 tax statement from the Tax Assessor-Collector in April 2004, Honeywell sued the District and the Board. See Tex. Tax Code Ann. § 42.01(1)(B) (West Supp. 2013).

Honeywell alleged in its lawsuit that the District exceeded its statutory and constitutional authority by “re-appraising the certified value of the Property” after the appraisal roll had been certified. Honeywell sought, among other relief, an order “fixing, in accordance with the law, the correct appraised value of the Property at the original certified value as required by law.” Though Honeywell moved for summary judgment and the District and the Board responded, the case proceeded to a bench trial.

After trial and the submission of post-trial briefs, the trial court signed a take-nothing judgment in favor of the Board and the District and against Honeywell. The judgment decrees that the 2003 appraisal roll is correct and that, for that tax year, the market and appraised value is $102,863,700.00 and the taxable value after exemptions is $55,631,770.00.

Honeywell timely requested findings of fact and conclusions of law, and the trial court issued them. Honeywell then objected to a number of the findings and conclusions and requested additional and amended ones. The trial court issued amended findings and conclusions as requested by Honeywell, but they remained largely unchanged.

OMITTED PROPERTY

Honeywell’s first three issues concern its argument that the District improperly increased the appraised value of its business personal property after the appraisal roll had been certified.

1. The Tax Code

In its first and third issues, Honeywell argues the District acted without statutory authority' by increasing the appraised value of the Property after it had been certified to the tax collector. We disagree.

Honeywell claims that the appraisal roll may not be changed after it is certified unless: (1) the taxpayer files a. protest under Chapter 41 of the Tax Code or a lawsuit under Chapter 42 of the Tax Code; or (2) the taxpayer or chief appraiser files a motion to correct certain specific situations inapplicable here. See Tex.Tax Code Ann. §§ 25.25(a), (c) (West Supp.2013). Honeywell contends that because “none of these methods were utilized” in this case, “any change in the appraised value of [the Property] was illegal and in violation of the ... Tax Code.” We agree that an appraisal district is “not permitted under Section 25.25 to increase the value at which property has been appraised after the appraisal roll has been certifíed[.]” MAG-T, L.P., 161 S.W.3d at 627 [Emphasis in the original].

An appraisal district, however, is permitted under Sections 25.21 and 25.23 of the Tax Code “to add omitted property ... to the appraisal roll through a supplemental appraisal record even after the roll has been certified.” Id. (Emphasis in the original). Section 25.21 addresses the situation in which property has been omitted from the appraisal district’s appraisal rec *499 ords. See Tex.Tax Code Ann. § 25.21 (West 2008). 4 The remedy provided by this section is the entry of “the property and its appraised value in the appraisal records.” Tex.Tax Code Ann. § 25.21. Section 25.28(a)(1), like Section 25.21, authorizes supplemental appraisal records that add property omitted from an appraisal roll in a prior tax year. See TexTax Code Ann. § 25.23(a)(l)(West 2008). 5 Further, Section 25.28(e) authorizes the chief appraiser to add these types of supplemental appraisal records to the appraisal roll. See TexTax Code Ann. § 25.23(e). Thus, if Honeywell omitted business personal property from the appraisal rolls in either 2001 or 2002, then Sections 25.21 and 25.23 — not Section 25.25 — govern the outcome of this case.

Although Honeywell does not admit to culpability, there is no question Honeywell omitted business personal property from the appraisal rolls in either 2001 or 2002. 6

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441 S.W.3d 495, 2014 WL 1062214, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 3030, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/honeywell-international-inc-v-denton-central-appraisal-district-and-texapp-2014.