In Re the Appeal of Morgan

652 S.E.2d 655, 186 N.C. App. 567, 2007 N.C. App. LEXIS 2315
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedNovember 6, 2007
DocketCOA06-1423
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 652 S.E.2d 655 (In Re the Appeal of Morgan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re the Appeal of Morgan, 652 S.E.2d 655, 186 N.C. App. 567, 2007 N.C. App. LEXIS 2315 (N.C. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinions

TYSON, Judge.

Henderson County (“the County”) appeals from final decision entered prohibiting it from attempting to collect unpaid back taxes and interest on real property owned by Tyleta W. Morgan (“Mrs. Morgan”). We affirm.

I. Background

Mrs. Morgan has owned approximately eighty-five acres of rural land in the County since 1972. In 1991, the property was placed in the [568]*568Forestry Management Program as “forestry” land and as a result was assessed at a relatively low present use tax value.

Mrs. Morgan and her husband, now deceased, began building a house on this property in 1986 that was finished in approximately 1993. Mr. Morgan obtained all required permits from the County to build the home, and the County inspected the construction in 1986.

In 1993, when the residence was eighty percent complete, Mr. Morgan listed the house on his county tax listing form. The County performed countywide reappraisals effective 1 January 1999 and 1 January 2003. An appraiser with the County Tax Assessor’s Office visited the Morgans’ property during those reappraisals. The listed residence remained unassessed.

In 2004, the County Tax Assessor’s Office finally assessed taxes on the Morgans’ residence and asserted that Mrs. Morgan owed back taxes and interest in the amount of $8,533.61 for tax years 1995 through 2003. Mrs. Morgan paid the sum and appealed to the Henderson County Board of Equalization and Review. The Board upheld the decision of the County Tax Assessor’s Office and Mrs. Morgan appealed to the North Carolina Property Tax Commission (“the Commission”).

The Commission found that Mrs. Morgan did not question the tax valuation of the property, but the County should have “ascertained values for the subject residence prior to the notice ... to recover back[] taxes associated with the subject residence.” Based upon its findings of fact, the Commission concluded “the failure of the Tax Assessor to include upon Taxpayer’s 1995 through 2003 tax bills valuation assessments for the subject residence was not an immaterial irregularity” and barred the County from attempting to collect the back taxes. The County appeals.

II. Issue

The County argues the Commission erred by concluding that it improperly issued assessment notices for the years 1995 through 2003 because the failure to assess the Morgans’ residence was an immaterial irregularity pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 105-394.

TTT. Standard of Review

This Court reviews the Commission’s decision under the whole record test. The whole record test is not a tool of judicial intrusion and this Court only considers whether the Commission’s [569]*569decision has a rational basis in the evidence. We may not substitute our judgment for .that of the Commission even when reasonably conflicting views of the evidence exist.

In re Weaver Inv. Co., 165 N.C. App. 198, 201, 598 S.E.2d 591, 593 (internal citations and quotations omitted), disc. rev. denied, 359 N.C. 188, 606 S.E.2d 695 (2004).

IV. Immaterial Irregularities

The County argues the failure by the County Tax Assessor’s Office to include valuation assessments for Mrs. Morgan’s residence on her 1995 through 2003 tax bills was an “immaterial irregularity” pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 105-394, and it is not barred from collecting nearly a decade’s worth of back taxes. We disagree.

• N.C. Gen. Stat. § 105-394 (2005) states, in relevant part:

Immaterial irregularities in the listing, appraisal, or assessment of property for taxation or in the levy or collection of the property tax or in any other proceeding or requirement of this Subchapter shall not invalidate the tax imposed upon any property or any process of listing, appraisal, assessment, levy, collection, or any other proceeding under this Subchapter.

The following are examples of immaterial irregularities:

(3) The failure to list, appraise, or assess any property for taxation or to levy any tax within the time prescribed by law.

The County and dissenting opinion cite In re Appeal of Dickey, 110 N.C. App. 823, 431 S.E.2d 203 (1993), to support the position that the County’s failure to assess Mrs. Morgan’s house for eleven years falls within the definition of “immaterial irregularities.” We disagree.

In In re Appeal of Dickey, the tax assessor accidentally removed a portion of the Dickeys’ property from the 1989 tax listing form. 110 N.C. App. at 825, 431 S.E.2d at 204. This Court reversed the Commission’s decision to relieve the Dickeys from their 1989 tax obligation. This Court stated, “a clerical error by a tax supervisor’s office is an immaterial irregularity under G.S. 105-394 so as not to invalidate the tax levied on the property.” Id. at 829, 431 S.E.2d at 207 (citation omitted) (emphasis supplied). We held:

[570]*570Based on the clear and unambiguous language of Section 105-394, we conclude that the failure by the Assessor due to an administrative error to include on the Dickeys’ 1989 tax bill an assessment for the improvements to the lot is an immaterial irregularity and does not, contrary to the Dickeys’ contention, invalidate the tax owed on the house.

Id. (emphasis supplied).

The Commission’s final decision did not ignore In re Appeal of Dickey, but expressly distinguished that case from the facts here. The Commission found substantial evidence was presented to support its finding that “the Tax Assessor could have obtained valuations for the subject residence prior to issuing the Notices of Immaterial Irregularity for tax years 1995 through 2003.” This finding of fact was based upon the Commission’s recitation of the evidence Mrs. Morgan presented:

(1) the Taxpayer’s husband listed the subject residence with the Henderson County Tax Office, effective January 1, 1993, as eighty percent (80%) complete and instructed the Tax Assessor to contact him if there were questions regarding his listing; (2) The Taxpayer’s husband obtained all necessary permits during the construction of the subject residence; (3) After the subject property’s original listing in January 1, 1993, the Tax Assessor conducted at least two countywide reappraisals, effective as of January 1,1999 and January 1, 2003; and (4) An appraiser with the Henderson County Tax Office visited the site of the subject property during the time of the county’s reappraisals. Thus, the Tax Assessor had ample information to know that a house was situated on the property.

The Commission concluded “the action of the Tax Assessor, under the facts and circumstances at issue ... [is not] an immaterial irregularity since his action in the matter does not constitute a clerical or administrative error.”

Mrs. Morgan presented, and the Commission found, substantial evidence tending to show the County was provided multiple opportunities to assess the property, but failed to do so.

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Related

In Re Appeal of Pace/Dowd Properties Ltd.
755 S.E.2d 401 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 2014)
In Re the Appeal of Morgan
652 S.E.2d 655 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 2007)

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Bluebook (online)
652 S.E.2d 655, 186 N.C. App. 567, 2007 N.C. App. LEXIS 2315, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-appeal-of-morgan-ncctapp-2007.