Independent Oil & Gas Ass'n v. Board of Assessment Appeals

780 A.2d 795, 149 Oil & Gas Rep. 545, 2001 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 515
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 13, 2001
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 780 A.2d 795 (Independent Oil & Gas Ass'n v. Board of Assessment Appeals) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Independent Oil & Gas Ass'n v. Board of Assessment Appeals, 780 A.2d 795, 149 Oil & Gas Rep. 545, 2001 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 515 (Pa. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinions

KELLEY, Judge.

Independent Oil and Gas Association et al. (Property Owners) appeal from the October 3, 2000 and October 24, 2000 orders of the Court of Common Pleas of Fayette County (trial court). The October 3, 2000 order denied Property Owners’ motion for summary judgment for the reason that Fayette County does have authority to impose real estate taxes on Property Owners’ oil and gas interests. The October 24, 2000 order denied Property Owners’ application for amendment of an interlocutory order. By order of December 21, 2000, this Court issued an order granting Property Owners’ petition for review and permitting Property Owners’ appeal from the trial court’s October 3, 2000 and October 24, 2000 orders.

Property Owners hold leasehold interests in oil and gas underlying tracts of land located in Fayette County. In 1998, the Board of Assessment Appeals of Fay-ette County (Board) began to assess the oil and gas interests of Property Owners for the purpose of imposing real estate taxes. On August 14, 1998, Property Owners filed an action for declaratory judgment and equitable relief alleging, inter alia, that the Board’s imposition of ad valorem taxes on oil and gas interests was illegal, unauthorized by the laws of the Commonwealth and in violation of the Pennsylvania Constitution as well as the United States Con[797]*797stitution.1 Subsequently, Property Owners filed a motion for summary judgment. Raising the issue sua sponte, the trial court held that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction to hear Property Owners’ motion because the Board maintained exclusive jurisdiction over the allegations raised in Property Owners’ complaint. Property Owners then sought reconsideration by the trial court, which was denied. Property Owners then appealed to this Court.

Upon review, this Court reversed the trial court’s order dismissing Property Owners’ motion for summary judgment and remanded for further proceedings based on our Supreme Court’s decision in Borough of Green Tree v. Board of Property Assessments, Appeals and Review of Allegheny County, 459 Pa. 268, 328 A.2d 819 (1974). We pointed out that pursuant to Borough of Green Tree, a substantial question of constitutionality concerning a taxing body’s powers excuses resort to the administrative process and allows one challenging that authority to proceed directly in equity. See Independent Oil and Gas Association of PA v. Board of Assessment Appeals of Fayette County, 760 A.2d 80 (Pa.Cmwlth., No. 185 C.D.2000, filed September 5, 2000). Upon review of Property Owners’ complaint, we concluded that Property Owners did not allege any over-assessment of taxes on any particular individual or group of individuals as would generally fall within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Board. Id. Instead, Property Owners directly challenged in their complaint the Board’s authority to assess the tax at all which falls outside of the Board’s jurisdiction and expertise, making no adequate administrative remedy at law available for them to challenge the imposition of the tax. Id. Accordingly, because Property Owners alleged a substantial constitutional question in them complaint and there was no adequate remedy at law, this Court held that the trial court erred in dismissing Property Owners’ motion for summary judgment for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Id.

Upon remand, the trial court denied Property Owners’ motion for summary judgment which set forth five “counts” in support of their assertion of entitlement to judgment: (1) the alleged lack of authorization to tax; (2) the fugacious nature of oil and gas renders them incapable of being proper subjects of property assessment; (3) an alleged lack of uniformity for assessments in Fayette County in violation of Article VIII, Section 1 of the Pennsylvania Constitution and statutory law; (4) the alleged impropriety of taxation without proof or any indication of the presence of oil and gas; and (5) the alleged necessity for a county-wide reassessment.2 The trial court denied the motion for summary judgment based solely on Property Owners’ claim in “Count I” of the motion.

The trial court opined that it is beyond argument that Fayette County is authorized to levy taxes on real estate and that it has long been settled law in this Commonwealth that oil and gas are considered real estate. The trial court held that the remaining “counts” of the motion raise issues that are not relevant to or based upon the statutory authority to impose the tax. The trial court stated that these “counts” merely assert impropriety in the valuation of their interests and the assessment of the real estate tax thereon. Ac[798]*798cordingly, the trial court held that it had no jurisdiction to consider such issues since the determination of Property Owners’ tax liability must be made through resort to the statutorily prescribed administrative process. This appeal followed .3

Property Owners raise the following issues in this appeal:

1. Whether oil and gas interests are the proper subjects of annual real estate or ad valorem taxes;
2. Whether the taxation of oil and gas interests is permissible since statutory law fails to specifically authorize or otherwise provide for the imposition of real estate or ad valorem taxes on oil and gas interests;
3. Whether taxation of such interests is proper where Fayette County and the Board have failed to make any distinction between severed and unsevered oil and gas interests is required by law; and
4. Whether the assessments fail to meet the uniformity requirements of Article VIII, Section of the Pennsylvania Constitution and therefore, also violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
5. Whether oil and gas should be included in the reassessment program if oil and gas are found to be assessable.

With respect to the first and second issues raised herein, Property Owners argue that Pennsylvania statutes failed to specifically authorize or otherwise provide for the imposition of real estate or ad valorem taxes on oil and gas interests. Property owners point out that the power to tax is statutory and must be derived from enactment of the General Assembly. Property Owners argue that because there is no explicit reference to oil and gas interests as proper subjects of assessment and taxation in Section 201 of The General County Assessment Law,4 there was no intent by the General Assembly when enacting this section to tax oil and gas interests. In addition, Property Owners argue that because the General Assembly explicitly recognized the taxing of coal interests in the other sections of The General County Assessment Law and The Fourth to Eighth Class County Assessment Law,5 it can be inferred that no such corresponding authority exists as to oil and gas interests.

Finally, Property Owners argue that the cases holding that oil and gas interests are considered real estate have never fully and logically explored the treatment of such interests as real estate and have instead evolved inconsistently and by happenstance.

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Related

In Re Estate of Ross
815 A.2d 30 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 2002)
Jennison Family Ltd. Partnership v. Montour School District
802 A.2d 1257 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 2002)
Independent Oil & Gas Ass'n v. Board of Assessment Appeals
780 A.2d 795 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 2001)

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Bluebook (online)
780 A.2d 795, 149 Oil & Gas Rep. 545, 2001 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 515, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/independent-oil-gas-assn-v-board-of-assessment-appeals-pacommwct-2001.