Rollman & Sons Co. v. Board of Revision

163 Ohio St. (N.S.) 363
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedMay 25, 1955
DocketNo. 34163
StatusPublished

This text of 163 Ohio St. (N.S.) 363 (Rollman & Sons Co. v. 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
Rollman & Sons Co. v. Board of Revision, 163 Ohio St. (N.S.) 363 (Ohio 1955).

Opinion

Matthias, J.

Although the appellant assigns nine different errors, such errors raise only two actual questions. First, was functional depreciation properly considered in the valuation of appellant’s property?, and, second, was the equalization program of the Board of Tax Appeals a valid exercise of its power under the applicable statutes?

The appellant contends that the original valuation placed upon its property by the county auditor was excessive, basing its contention primarily on the premise that an insufficient amount was allowed for functional depreciation or obsolescence.

Functional depreciation occurs where property, although still in good physical condition, has become [365]*365obsolete or useless due to changing business conditions and thus, to all' intents and purposes, valueless for tax purposes. B. F. Keith Columbus Co. v. Board of Revision, 148 Ohio St., 253, 74 N. E. (2d), 359.

There is no dispute that this building is used for department-store purposes.

The appellant contends that, although its building is sound structurally, it is totally inadequate for use as a department store because of lack of floor space and its height of 12 stories, and that for department-store purposes the floors above the third are economically unproductive. The unsupported testimony of appellant’s expert is to this effect but failed to show, even on inquiry, a sales loss ratio in regard to merchandise sold on such upper floors. There is no evidence other than this as to functional obsolescence.

Where a taxpayer is claiming a greater than ordinary amount for depreciation due to functional obsolescence, the burden is upon the taxpayer to establish such fact by competent evidence, and such burden is not sustained where the only evidence introduced as to such fact is the unsupported opinion of a witness for the taxpayer, who fails, though requested to do so, to substantiate his opinion with facts and figures.

In view of the record before this court we cannot say that the decision of the Board of Tax Appeals in this respect was unreasonable or unlawful.

The sole question before the Board of Tax Appeals on the appeal from the Board of Revision was whether the property in issue is valued at its true value in money. It having been determined that the order of the Board of Tax Appeals is reasonable and lawful, the appellant has not shown that it was injured by the action of the board, and one who is not injured thereby cannot question the validity of a statute or an order of an administrative body. The fact that others may have property which is valued at less than its [366]*366true value in money is not a denial of equal protection to the appellant because of the rights available to it under Section 5609, General Code, which provides for filing a complaint as to undervaluations of the property of others and therefore is not an issue which may be raised by the appellant in this case.

The facts upon which is predicated the complaint of the appellant as to the equalization program of the Board of Tax Appeals are as follows:

The Board of Tax Appeals, pursuant to House Bill 644 of the 98th General Assembly, entitled “An Act to Equalize the Real Property Valuations within the State for the Purpose of Taxation,” determined, on October 10,1951, to enter into an equalization program and notified the county auditors of the board’s intention to apply this equalization program. The auditors were given an opportunity to equalize the values of parcels of real property in their counties so that, when the board did act, the horizontal increase or decrease would not perpetuate and aggravate any inequalities between parcels of real estate in the same county.

The board adopted a standard method of valuation, that of a willing seller to a willing buyer, sent examiners into the field to make an accurate determination of existing valuations used for tax purposes, and developed what was called the sales-ratio method, that is, in each county examinations were made of real estate sales for the tax years of 1946, 1947 and 1948, and a ratio of the tax value to the sales consideration for that county was determined. The board then, after consideration of the inflated market value of real estate and various other factors, determined, as the first step of the general equalization program, that the aggregate tax valuations in each county should be adjusted to bring them up to at least 50 per cent of the sales price. In Hamilton County, with which we are concerned, it was determined that a 10 per cent increase [367]*367of the valuations in the aggregate would produce this result.

The appellant contends that the board should have classified real property, that the samples used by the board were primarily residential, that the board has no authority to use an arbitrary 50 per cent of sales price ratio, and that the increase was not applied properly by the board.

Section 5613, General Code (Section 5715.24, Eevised Code), under which the board acted in its equalization program, provides as follows:

“The Board of Tax Appeals of Ohio annually, at a meeting to be held at its office in Columbus, on the first Monday in August, or on such date thereafter to which such meeting may be adjourned, shall determine whether the real property, and the various classes thereof, in the several counties, cities, villages and taxing districts in the state, have been assessed at the true value thereof in money, and if it finds that the real property, or any class of real property, in any county, city, village or taxing district in the state as reported by the several county auditors to it, is not listed at its true value in money, it shall increase or decrease the aggregate value of the real property, or any class of real property, in any such county, township, city, village, or taxing district, or in any ward or division of a municipal corporation, by such rate per cent, or by such amount as will place such property on the tax list at its true value in money, to the end that each and every class of real property shall be listed and valued for taxation by an equal and uniform rule at its true value in money.”

Before entering into a discussion of the board’s actions in its equalization program, we should consider the relative positions of the Board of Tax Appeals and the county auditors in relation to tax valuation.

Dnder the Ohio tax system the primary duty of [368]*368valuation by parcel falls upon the county auditor. It is Ms duty to appraise and evaluate the real estate in his county, parcel by parcel, and to place upon each parcel a fair valuation. In the event a taxpayer is dissatisfied with such valuation he may appeal to the county Board of Revision and from there to the Board of Tax Appeals.

The Board of Tax Appeals has general supervisory jurisdiction over the valuation of the property in each county as a whole and jurisdiction as to individual parcels only as an appellate body on complaint of a taxpayer.

The purpose of Section 5613, General Code (Section 5715.24, Revised Code), is to equalize the tax valuations among all the counties.

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Related

B. F. Keith Columbus Co. v. Board of Revision
74 N.E.2d 359 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1947)
Wheeling Steel Corp. v. Evatt
54 N.E.2d 132 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1944)
First National Bank v. Patterson
65 Colo. 166 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1917)

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Bluebook (online)
163 Ohio St. (N.S.) 363, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rollman-sons-co-v-board-of-revision-ohio-1955.