Revenue Cabinet v. Leary

880 S.W.2d 878, 1994 Ky. App. LEXIS 8, 1994 WL 27890
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedFebruary 4, 1994
DocketNos. 92-CA-000294-MR, 93-CA-000374-MR
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 880 S.W.2d 878 (Revenue Cabinet v. Leary) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Revenue Cabinet v. Leary, 880 S.W.2d 878, 1994 Ky. App. LEXIS 8, 1994 WL 27890 (Ky. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

HUDDLESTON, Judge.

As directed by Ky.Rev.Stat. (KRS) 132.-690, the Franklin County Property Valuation Administrator undertook to revalue the 17,-576 separate properties within the county so as to assess each at its fair market value. Since the statute requires that each property be physically examined not less than once every four years, the PVA and his staff divided the county into four sections and undertook to inspect the properties in one section each year.

Joseph J. Leary, an owner of property in the second section subject to physical examination by the PVA, brought a declaratory judgment action in Franklin Circuit Court according to KRS Chapter 418 to challenge the quadrennial revaluation procedure. He argued, and the lower court agreed, that the so-called quadrennial plan adopted by the PVA violates Sections 2, 171 and 172 of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and is in conflict with KRS 132.450.

Franklin Circuit Court enjoined the PVA, as well as the Revenue Cabinet, to comply with the constitutional provisions cited above and, specifically, with that portion of KRS 132.450 which requires that “the property of one (1) person shall not be assessed willfully or intentionally at a lower or higher relative value than the same class of property of another, and any grossly discriminatory evaluation shall be construed as an intentional discrimination....” In a subsequent order, the circuit court determined that all affected taxpayers — that is, all whose property had been physically examined and who had their assessments raised as a result — be granted a tax refund equal to the difference between the taxes paid in 1990 and in 1991 and the taxes paid in 1989. This ruling was made in spite the fact that this action was brought by Leary on his own behalf, and not as representative of a class of taxpayers. We believe that the circuit court erred when it made these rulings.

KRS 132.690 provides that:

Each parcel of taxable real property or interest therein subject to assessment by the [PVA] shall be revalued during each year of each term of office by the [PVA] at its fair cash value in accordance with standards prescribed by the Revenue Cabinet and shall be physically examined no less than once every four (4) years by the [PVA] or his assessing personnel.... (Emphasis supplied.)

Acting pursuant to this statute, the Franklin County PVA submitted to the Kentucky Revenue Cabinet a plan for the systematic physical examination of all real property located in the county over a four-year period. The PVA proposed to divide Franklin County into four geographic sections. The property located in each section would be physically examined and revalued in its scheduled year as an aid in determining its fair cash value. All residential and commercial property would be examined in the first three years, while agricultural property was to be examined during the fourth year. The plan was approved and implemented.

Joseph J. Leary owned property located in plan section two of the county. The PVA physically examined Leary’s property in 1991, the second year of the plan, and increased its assessed value. In his declaratory judgment action, Leary argued that other properties not included in sections one and two would not be revalued and assessed by the PVA until years three and four of the plan, thus violating the constitutional re[880]*880quirements of equality and uniformity of assessment.

As above noted, Leary relied on three sections of the Kentucky Constitution, § 2, § 171 and § 172. The first, § 2, declares, in relevant part, that absolute and arbitrary power over the property of freemen exists nowhere in a republic. The second, § 171, provides, in pertinent part, that taxes “shall be uniform upon all property of the same class subject to taxation within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax....” The third, § 172, provides, also in relevant part, that “[a]ll property, not exempted from taxation by this Constitution, shall be assessed for taxation at its fair cash value, estimated at the price it would bring at a fair voluntary sale....”

After the trial court granted Leary’s motion for summary judgment and vacated the 1990 and 1991 assessments made for properties located in sections one and two, the Revenue Cabinet, through its Secretary, and the PVA appealed to this Court.

While the precise issue raised in this case has not been addressed by this Court or by the Kentucky Supreme Court, there are several decisions from other states that are instructive. Many of them are collected in an annotation appearing in 76 A.L.R.2d 1077 entitled “Real-estate tax equalization, reassessment, or revaluation program commenced but not completed within the year, as violative of constitutional provisions requiring equal and uniform taxation.” As the author of the annotation observes:

The cases disclose a strong inclination to disallow the claim that a violation of constitutional right to equality and uniformity in taxation results from inequalities and mal-adjustments consequent on the inability of assessors and reviewing and equalizing officers to complete within a single tax year a projected program for the reassessment of the lands of a given county or other tax district.

76 A.L.R.2d at 1077. As a matter of fact, the annotation’s author continues:

Thus far all claims of violation of constitutional right by reason of the element of time above indicated have been rejected, including those made in cases in which the result of temporary non-completion of the program was to cause some lands of the tax area to be for the time being assessed at new and higher valuations, ... while other lands not yet reached were assessed at old and glaringly contrasting values.

Id.

Illustrative of the cases from other states which treat the issue at hand is Hamilton v. Adkins, 250 Ala. 557, 35 So.2d 183 (1948), cert. den., 335 U.S. 861, 69 S.Ct. 133, 93 L.Ed. 407 (1948). There, as in the case before us for decision, a plan to reassess, review and equalize all real estate within a county was adopted. Under the plan, the county was divided into four districts, with one district to be reassessed each year. The practical reason for implementing the planned reassessment over four years was that the assessor lacked the staff and resources to complete the job sooner. Upon consideration of constitutional provisions similar to Kentucky’s, the Alabama Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the plan. The court held that to establish the right to in-junctive relief under the constitutional provisions relied on, including the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, there must be established a systematic and intentional discrimination. The court’s view was that there could be no design or intention to discriminate arising from the fact that the reappraisal was not to be accomplished in less time than the assessor and his staff were physically able to do it.

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Bluebook (online)
880 S.W.2d 878, 1994 Ky. App. LEXIS 8, 1994 WL 27890, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/revenue-cabinet-v-leary-kyctapp-1994.