Metamora Elevator Co. v. Fulton County Board of Revision

37 N.E.3d 1223, 143 Ohio St. 3d 359
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 15, 2015
DocketNo. 2014-0874
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 37 N.E.3d 1223 (Metamora Elevator Co. v. Fulton County Board of Revision) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Metamora Elevator Co. v. Fulton County Board of Revision, 37 N.E.3d 1223, 143 Ohio St. 3d 359 (Ohio 2015).

Opinion

O’Donnell, J.

{¶ 1} The Metamora Elevator Company filed complaints with the Fulton County Board of Revision (“BOR”), alleging that the grain storage bins on its property assessed by the county auditor as real property for tax purposes should be classified as personal property not subject to real estate tax. The complaints sought removal from the tax assessment of all property value associated with the grain storage bins.

{¶ 2} After conducting a hearing, the BOR declined to change the assessment. Metamora appealed that decision to the Board of Tax Appeals (“BTA”), which determined the storage bins were temporary structures and held they should be classified as personal property, and therefore reversed the BOR. On appeal to this court, the Fulton County auditor and the BOR (collectively, “the county”) contend that the BTA misapplied the statutes when it found that the grain storage bins were personal property. Our review reveals that in 1992, the General Assembly added “business fixtures” as a category of personal property [360]*360and expressly included storage bins in that category. Because of that statutory change, we affirm the decision of the BTA.

Factual Background

{¶ 3} The subject property consists of eight acres of land containing silos, storage bins, tanks, and buildings used to process and store grain. On March 29, 2010, Metamora filed separate complaints with the Fulton County Board of Revision, seeking to reduce the property value of two parcels from $2,022,600 to $1,514,070 and to remove the storage bins from the real property assessment, claiming that they are business fixtures. The BOR conducted a hearing, and at that time, Metamora orally amended its complaints to seek a further reduction of the real estate value to $820,740.

{¶ 4} At the hearing before the BOR, Daniel Dembowski testified on behalf of the property owner, urging, along with counsel, that the storage bins are being improperly taxed as real property because they are business fixtures. He explained that on the company’s books, the bins are classified as equipment items. In the past, because personal property used in business was generally taxable, the owner made no effort to correct the county’s classification of the bins from real property to personal property; but the phase-out of the general personal property tax made it important to obtain the proper classification.

{¶ 5} When explaining photographs of the premises, Dembowski distinguished the concrete silo structures from the corrugated metal storage bins. He conceded that the former are permanent and constitute realty. By contrast, he asserted, the storage bins are modular units of corrugated sheeting bolted down in concrete foundations which can be and sometimes have been disassembled and reassembled, and he stated that Metamora has sold and removed bins in the past.

{¶ 6} The BOR rejected the taxpayer’s claim, leaving the assessed valuation unchanged. Metamora then appealed the decision of the BOR to the BTA with respect to only one of the two parcels — a parcel with an initial assessment of $1,833,600 and a requested reduction to a value of $1,435,970. The BTA determined that the grain storage bins were personal rather than real property and therefore reversed the decision of the BOR and determined that the true value of the subject property was $738,240, which it derived from the auditor’s original value of $1,833,600 less the auditor’s value of the storage bins of $1,095,360.

{¶ 7} In its analysis, the BTA applied Funtime, Inc. v. Wilkins, 105 Ohio St.3d 74, 2004-Ohio-6890, 822 N.E.2d 781, stating:

It is undisputed by the parties that the Supreme Court’s holding in Funtime, supra, guides our analysis of the two statutes at issue, i.e., R.C. [361]*3615701.02 and R.C. 5701.03. In that case, the court articulated very specific instructions when reading the statutes:
“first, determine whether the item meets the requirements of one of the statutory definitions of real property set forth in R.C. 5701.02. If the item does not, then it is personal property. If the item fits a statutory definition of real property in R.C. 5701.02, it is real property unless it is ‘otherwise specified’ in R.C. 5701.03. If an item is ‘otherwise specified’ under R.C. 5701.03, it is personal property.”
Thus, we must first determine whether the grain storage bins meet one of the statutory definitions for real property set forth in [R.C.] 5701.02.

(Footnote omitted.) BTA No. 2011-1854, 2014 WL 2708166, *1-2 (May 2, 2014), quoting Funtime at ¶ 33.

{¶ 8} The BTA reviewed the statutory definitions of “structure” and “fixture” related to real property, both of which refer to the “permanent” character of the item or the permanency of its attachment to the land. It then made a specific finding that “the grain storage bins at issue are not permanent, but temporary structures.” Id. at *2. Based on that finding, the BTA concluded that the grain storage bins did not come within the definition of real property in the first instance and thus failed the first prong of the Funtime test.

{¶ 9} And in footnote 7 of its opinion, the BTA stated: “Even if we had found that the storage grain bins were real property under R.C. 5701.02, we would have found that they meet the definition of ‘business fixture’ under R.C. 5701.03(B) because it is a category specifically enumerated in the statute.” The BTA summarized the testimony to the effect that the storage bins “were modular, not permanent, they can be removed and sold, and they can be disassembled for repair and subsequently reassembled.” Id. at *1.

{¶ 10} In accordance with its holding, the BTA removed the storage bins from the assessment by subtracting from the auditor’s total valuation of $1,833,600 the amount of value computed by the auditor that was attributable to the bins— $1,095,360. The BTA therefore adopted a real property value of $738,240.

{¶ 11} The county appealed that decision to this court.

Claims of the Litigants

{¶ 12} The county advances two propositions of law in support of its claim that the grain storage bins are real rather than personal property.

{¶ 13} First, that a building or structure on the land is a permanent fabrication or construction that is attached or affixed to land and that increases or enhances utilization or enjoyment of the land, and constitutes an improvement on the land [362]*362under Article XII, Section 2 of the Ohio Constitution, and must be taxed as real property.

{¶ 14} Second, that a building or structure that constitutes a fabrication or construction on the land cannot be a fixture under R.C. 5701.02(C) because a fixture is a discrete and preexisting chattel or item of personal property that is brought to the land and that is then attached or affixed to land.

{¶ 15} These arguments rely on the constitutional term “improvements,” which the county asserts is controlling because, it contends, the storage bins are improvements.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
37 N.E.3d 1223, 143 Ohio St. 3d 359, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/metamora-elevator-co-v-fulton-county-board-of-revision-ohio-2015.