Madison Community Apartments, Inc. v. Madison Parish Police Jury

444 So. 2d 1352, 1984 La. App. LEXIS 7903
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 16, 1984
DocketNo. 15875-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 444 So. 2d 1352 (Madison Community Apartments, Inc. v. Madison Parish Police Jury) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Madison Community Apartments, Inc. v. Madison Parish Police Jury, 444 So. 2d 1352, 1984 La. App. LEXIS 7903 (La. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

JASPER E. JONES, Judge.

The defendants, Madison Parish Police Jury, Madison Parish Tax Assessor, James D. Sevier, Louisiana Tax Commission and R.R. Mitchell, Sheriff & Ex-Officio Tax Collector and intervenor City of Tallulah, appeal a judgment which orders the removal of property belonging .to Madison Community Apartments, Inc. and Starr Lodge Apartments, Inc. from the tax rolls of the [1354]*1354City of Tallulah and the Parish of Madison and further orders the 1981 ad valorem taxes paid under protest to the City of Tallulah and the Parish of Madison to be reimbursed to Madison and Starr. We reverse and set aside the judgment.

Madison and Starr filed suit against defendants on October 30, 1980 alleging that each owned a tract of land in the City of Tallulah on which apartment complexes had been constructed. They alleged that each are nonprofit corporations formed and operated on a non-profitable basis to provide low and middle income families with dwellings. They allege for these reasons they were exempt under Art. 7, § 21(B)(1) of the Constitution of 1974 from the payment of ad valorem taxes.1 They alleged the assessor, the parish police jury and the Louisiana Tax Commission had assessed their constitutionally exempt property in 1980 in the amount of $11,630.63 (Starr) and $6,592.59 (Madison). They prayed for judgment exempting them from these ad valorem taxes.

The sheriff filed an exception of no cause or right of action contending the suit was directed at the inclusion of the plaintiffs’ allegedly tax exempt property on the ad valorem tax rolls and that his official duties did not require him to participate in the preparation or approval of the assessment rolls and for that reason the suit asserted no cause or right of action against him. This exception was sustained by judgment signed on August 5, 1981 which was not appealed and therefore was a final judgment long before the judgment rendered against the sheriff and his co-defendants on April 18, 1983 and which has here been appealed.

The trial of this case commenced November 15, 1982 and was completed on January 10, 1983.

On January 31, 1983 the City of Tallulah filed a petition of intervention alleging it would be adversely affected by any decision exempting these plaintiffs from ad valorem taxes and in the interest of judicial economy and to avoid filing litigation of its own to protect its interest that it desired to become a party to these proceedings.

The appellants make four assignments of error: (1) The trial court’s finding that the plaintiffs had alleged and proved a cause of action, (2) the trial court’s award of a refund to the plaintiffs of their 1981 ad valo-rem taxes, (3) the provision of the judgment ordering the plaintiffs removed from the City and parish tax rolls, and (4) the trial court’s finding that plaintiffs were entitled to the constitutional charitable exemption from ad valorem taxes.

Assignment of Error # 1

The plaintiffs argued in brief before this court that their cause of action was based upon the provisions of La.R.S. 47:2110.2 Section A of this statute autho[1355]*1355rizes any taxpayer who desires to oppose the payment of taxes assessed to pay the taxes under protest to the officer designated by law to collect them and give this officer notice of his intention to file suit to recover the taxes. It requires the officer receiving the taxes to segregate the money so paid for a period of 30 days and provides that if the suit to recover the taxes is filed within that 30 days the amount so segregated shall be held pending the outcome of the suit, and in the event the taxpayer is successful it orders the officer to refund the taxes so paid, together with 2% per annum interest.

Section B of the statute requires service of the suit upon the officer designated by law to collect the taxes and states that he shall be the sole necessary and proper party defendant in such suit.

A review of the plaintiffs’ petition reflects they complain of the tax assessments against them for the year 1980 as being invalid because of their Constitutional exemption. They do not allege the payment of this assessment and necessarily they do not allege that it was paid under protest. At the trial of the case it was not established when the 1980 taxes, based upon the complained assessment, were paid, nor that they were paid under protest. It is further significant that the trial judge made no finding with regard to the 1980 taxes nor did she award the plaintiffs any judgment for them. It is also of importance that the sheriff, who is required to be the party defendant by the provisions of Part B of § 2110, was dismissed as a party defendant by a judgment dated more than a year before this case was tried. The tax collector of the city was never made a party to the suit. For these stated reasons the plaintiff neither alleged nor proved a cause of action for the refund of their taxes under the provisions of R.S. 47:2110.

Assignment of Error #2

The plaintiffs argue that the following provision of Part C of § 2110 entitles them to recover the 1981 taxes.

“Upon request of a taxpayer and upon proper showing by such taxpayer that the principle of law involved in an additional assessment is already pending before the courts for judicial determination, the taxpayer, upon agreement to abide by the pending decision of the courts, may pay the additional assessment under protest but need not file an additional suit.”

If the plaintiffs had in fact filed this suit under § 2110 for the recovery of 1980 taxes paid under protest and made proof at the trial of having complied with the quoted provision of Part C § 2110, they may have been entitled to a judgment for the [1356]*1356refund of 1980 taxes along with a judgment for the refund of their 1981 taxes paid under protest. But here the plaintiffs failed to file their suit under the provision of § 2110 and also failed to make any effort to prove compliance with the quoted provision of Part C, other than having paid 1981 taxes under protest, and for these reasons were not entitled to a judgment for the refund of their 1981 taxes under the provisions of 47:2110.

Section 2110 Part D recognizes that the cause of action provided in § 2110 to a taxpayer to sue for a refund of taxes paid under protest is in addition to the right given the taxpayer under R.S. 47:1998 to test the legality of an ad valorem assessment. A review of § 19983 reveals that any taxpayer dissatisfied with the action of the Louisiana Tax Commission under the provisions of 47:1989 shall have a right to institute a suit against the tax commission in the district court within 30 days of the decision of the commission.4

A review of § 1989 reveals that the tax commission shall hear the appeal of any taxpayer dissatisfied with the determination of the local board of review and has the power to reverse or modify the appealed determination of the local board of review. The local board of review of the 1980 assessment about which the plaintiffs complain is the Madison Parish Police Jury. See 47:1931.

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Bluebook (online)
444 So. 2d 1352, 1984 La. App. LEXIS 7903, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/madison-community-apartments-inc-v-madison-parish-police-jury-lactapp-1984.