Scripps Howard Cable Company v. Havill

665 So. 2d 1071
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedDecember 1, 1995
Docket94-731, 94-1301
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 665 So. 2d 1071 (Scripps Howard Cable Company v. Havill) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Scripps Howard Cable Company v. Havill, 665 So. 2d 1071 (Fla. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

665 So.2d 1071 (1995)

SCRIPPS HOWARD CABLE COMPANY d/b/a Lake County Cablevision, Appellant,
v.
Ed HAVILL, as the Property Appraiser for Lake County, Florida, et al., Appellees.

Nos. 94-731, 94-1301.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.

December 1, 1995.
Rehearing Denied January 12, 1996.

*1073 Jerry R. Linscott and Denis L. Durkin and Lea Ann Banks of Baker & Hostetler, Orlando, for Appellant.

Gaylord A. Wood, Jr. of Wood & Stuart, P.A., Ft. Lauderdale, for Appellee Ed Havill, as Lake County Property Appraiser.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, and Lee R. Rohe, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee State of Florida, Department of Revenue.

GOSHORN, Judge.

Scripps Howard Cable Company, d/b/a Lake County Cablevision, appeals the final judgment in favor of Ed Havill, Lake County Property Appraiser, T. Keith Hall, Lake County Tax Collector, and Thomas Herndon, Executive Director of the Florida Department of Revenue. The judgment was entered in Scripps Howard's action contesting the ad valorem tax assessments of its tangible personal property for the years 1989 through 1992. Scripps Howard contests the property to be appraised and the method used to determine the value of that property. Simply put, Scripps Howard believes that the cost method of valuation should be used to value its tangible personal property. Havill urges the value of Scripps Howard's personal property is the same as Scripps Howard's value as a business or going concern.

FACTS

Scripps Howard is the owner of a cable television business. It purchases programming and sells its program choices to its subscribers. It uses microwave antennae, broadcast antennae, VHT antennae, and a satellite receiving dish to receive the signals from broadcast television stations and satellites. The signals are then sent by cable to signal processing centers, which are called "head-ends." Scripps Howard has eight headends in Lake County. Headend equipment consists of a processor and modulator for each broadcast signal and a video cipher, descrambler, and processor for each cable signal. The signals are then sent through large trunk cables to major distribution points. Distribution cables carry the signals from the major distribution points to the neighborhoods Scripps Howard serves. There are roughly two amplifiers per mile along the distribution cables to boost the signal. The line which carries the signal from the distribution cable to each subscriber's house is called a "house drop." In addition to the equipment used in the above described tasks, Scripps Howard owns trucks and associated business equipment in its business.

The following table shows the valuations of Scripps Howard's personal property reached according to three different appraisals:

                         Scripps Howard   Kane Reece[1]    Havill
      January 1, 1989    $8,603,400       $10,100,837        $14,999,454
      January 1, 1990    $8,819,700       $ 9,015,630        $17,190,856
      January 1, 1991    $8,614,169       $ 8,622,564        $19,170,796
      January 1, 1992    $9,600,284       $ 8,582,560        $21,590,700

The original 1989 assessed value of Scripps Howard was $8,603,400. This figure was based on an understanding that tangible personal property would be assessed on a per customer basis, as had been the practice since 1976. In mid 1990, Robert Ross, the Deputy Property Appraiser acting under Havill, reassessed the property using the income/unit-rule approach. The reassessment increased the assessed value to $14,999,454. Havill thereafter continued to appraise Scripps Howard's tangible personal property using the income approach. Interestingly, the six other cable television companies operating in Lake County are assessed using the cost less depreciation method. Only a phone company and an electric company are assessed in Lake County by the method used to assess Scripps Howard. Scripps Howard unsuccessfully challenged the assessment of its property in the circuit court and appeals from the final judgment rendered against it.

APPRAISER'S DETERMINATION OF VALUE

As an initial matter, we acknowledge that we are governed by the longstanding *1074 principle that the appraiser's determination of just value must be upheld if it was lawfully reached and if it is supported by any reasonable hypothesis of legality. Blake v. Xerox Corp., 447 So.2d 1348 (Fla. 1984). A tax assessment is presumed correct, Walker v. Smathers, 507 So.2d 1207 (Fla. 4th DCA 1987), and if the assessor reaches the right result using the wrong method, no ground for reversal exists. Bystrom v. Whitman, 488 So.2d 520 (Fla. 1986) (holding that the core issue in a tax assessment challenge is the amount of the assessment, not the method used to reach the valuation, and that an appraiser may reach a correct result for the wrong reason).

IMPROPER INCLUSION OF FRANCHISE VALUE

Scripps Howard contends that the appraisal figures determined by the appraiser's office were not reached lawfully based on Ross's admission that he considered the franchise in his assessment of Scripps Howard's personal property. Section 199.185(1) lists certain intangible personal property which is exempt from taxation. Among the items considered to be intangible personal property and which are exempt from taxation are franchises. § 199.185(1)(b), Fla. Stat. (1993). Ross, the Deputy Property Appraiser who actually performed the assessments, testified that he included the value of Scripps Howard's franchise in his assessment of Scripps Howard's tangible personal property "because it is a part of the cost of the tangible personal property."

Havill argues that franchises are "intangible intangibles," which are influences on value, like goodwill and location. The franchise enhances the value of the cable system and it is the assembled system which is being valued, not the franchise itself, Havill contends. We disagree. There is a difference between location, such as a condominium with an ocean view, and intangibles such as goodwill and franchise rights. View directly relates to and defines the real property, while goodwill and franchise rights relate to the property only in their connection with the business using the property. See Shubat v. Sutter County Assessment Appeals Board, 13 Cal. App.4th 794, 17 Cal. Rptr.2d 1, 7 (1993) (holding that franchise rights, customer lists, and the right to do business are intangible assets that have value apart from the possessory interests and are exempt from property taxation).

Havill's reasoning was rejected by the Oregon Tax Court. In Jones Intercable, Inc. v. Department of Revenue, 12 OTR 436, 443-44, 1993 WL 129217 (1993), the court wrote:

Defendant also asserts that the effects from the legal rights to operate a CATV system may be included in the assessed value of the system. When boiled down to its essence, defendant's argument merely claims that a franchise adds value to a CATV property and should be included in its assessed value. In making this argument, defendant ignores the court's ruling in Boise Cascade Corp. v. Dept. of Rev., 12 OTR 263 [1991 WL 434542] (1992). That ruling gave the example of a yellow car which is tangible property and valued as such. Id. at 269. If an owner obtains a franchise to operate the car as a taxi, that franchise does not add value to the yellow car. The franchise is a right to operate a business, not the right to use a yellow car.
Plaintiffs do not need a franchise to turn their systems on and process television signals.

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Related

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Mazourek
778 So. 2d 346 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2000)
Havill v. Scripps Howard Cable Co.
742 So. 2d 210 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1998)

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Bluebook (online)
665 So. 2d 1071, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scripps-howard-cable-company-v-havill-fladistctapp-1995.