Sherwood Co. v. Clary

734 S.W.2d 318, 1987 Tenn. LEXIS 1068
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 27, 1987
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 734 S.W.2d 318 (Sherwood Co. v. Clary) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sherwood Co. v. Clary, 734 S.W.2d 318, 1987 Tenn. LEXIS 1068 (Tenn. 1987).

Opinion

OPINION

HARBISON, Chief Justice.

The issue presented by this appeal is the constitutionality of T.C.A. § 67-5-901(3)(A) dealing with the assessment of non-business tangible personal property. The statute was enacted as 1977 Tenn.Pub.Acts, ch. 337, § 2, and provides:

“All other tangible personal property shall be assessed at five percent (5%) of its value, except that for the purpose of taxation under this chapter, all other tangible personal property shall be deemed to have no value.”

Appellant is the owner of tangible personal property used in business as part of an apartment complex. Its tangible personal property was assessed at thirty percent of its value as commercial property for the tax year in question. Appellant makes no complaint of the method or amount of the assessment of its own property, nor does it make any issue with respect to the assessment of any other business or commercial tangible personal property in Tennessee. Likewise it does not attack the assessment and classification of utility properties which are assessed at fifty-five percent of value.

Appellant paid its tangible personal property taxes under protest and sued for a refund. It is doubtful that this remedy is available to it in the state courts under the leading case of Carroll v. Alsup, 107 Tenn. 257, 64 S.W. 193 (1901). There this Court held that if a taxpayer was unable to show improper assessment of his own property, he could not seek relief simply because other property might be assessed at a smaller percentage of its true or actual value than his own.

As pointed out by the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in the case of Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co. v. Public Service Commission, 631 F.2d 426 (6th Cir.1980), cert. denied, 450 U.S. 959, 101 S.Ct. 1418, 67 L.Ed.2d 384 (1981), there has been little departure from the rule of the Carroll case, supra, in the state courts.

Appellant does not ask that the entire structure of the assessment and taxation of tangible personal property be ruled invalid. Basically it seeks a declaratory judgment that the effective exemption of nonbusiness tangible personal property be declared invalid and that until this is done and such property is assessed, that appellant’s own assessment be held void.

We do not believe that appellant is entitled to this relief. Nevertheless we will briefly discuss the issues presented.

Appellant challenges the exemption of nonbusiness tangible property as violative of the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution. Appellant is virtually forced to concede, however, that this claim is foreclosed by the decision of the United States [320]*320Supreme Court in Lehnhausen v. Lake Shore Auto Parts, 410 U.S. 356, 93 S.Ct. 1001, 35 L.Ed.2d 351 (1973). There the Supreme Court upheld an Illinois scheme of taxation in which business and industrial property was subjected to tax and personal property held by individuals was exempted.

In that case it was shown by evidence that attempts to tax personal property held by individuals had been ineffective, inefficient and not cost effective from the standpoint of revenues generated. The Supreme Court upheld an Illinois constitutional provision exempting such property.

In our opinion that case is controlling here with respect to any federal constitutional claim. The principal insistence of appellant, however, is that the statute which was enacted in 1977 violates the provisions of the Tennessee Constitution, especially the taxation article, Article 2, § 28, and the provisions of Article 11, § 8, respecting invidious class discrimination.

Like the Chancellor, we are of the opinion that these contentions are without merit even if the taxpayer had demonstrated standing to raise them.

Article 2, § 28, of the Tennessee Constitution was extensively revised by an amendment adopted in 1972. This amendment has been discussed in a number of previously reported opinions, and it is not necessary to repeat its entire history. See generally, Snow v. City of Memphis, 527 S.W.2d 55 (Tenn.1975), appeal dismissed, 423 U.S. 1083, 96 S.Ct. 873, 47 L.Ed.2d 95 (1976), rehearing denied, 424 U.S. 979, 96 S.Ct. 1487, 47 L.Ed.2d 750 (1976).

It is sufficient to state here that the Tennessee Constitution prior to the amendment prohibited classification for tax purposes of property according to its use. It required all property to be taxed, except for certain exceptions or exemptions which the Legislature might authorize, and mandated that all property should be taxed according to its value so that taxes would be equal and uniform throughout the state. It expressly provided that no one species of property from which a tax might be collected should be taxed higher than any other species of property of the same value.

All of this was changed by the 1972 amendment, which made all property in the state subject to the taxing power of the Legislature but authorized classifications of real property and of tangible and intangible personal property. With respect to real property and tangible personal property the amendment provided for fixed ratios of assessment to value in each classification and required that every taxing authority apply the same tax rate to all property within its jurisdiction. The amendment expressly provided:

“The ratio of assessment to value of property in each class or subclass shall be equal and uniform throughout the State, the value and definition of property in each class or subclass to be ascertained in such manner as the Legislature shall direct.”

With respect to tangible personal property three subclassifications were authorized with the following ratios:

1. Public utility properly to be assessed at 55% of its value.
2. Industrial and commercial property to be assessed at 30% of its value.
3. All other tangible personal property to be assessed at 5% of its value.

With respect to the latter classification, however, the amendment provided that the General Assembly should exempt seventy-five hundred dollars worth of such tangible personal property

"... which shall cover personal household goods and furnishings, wearing apparel and other such tangible property in the hands of the taxpayer.”

Pursuant to this amendment the General Assembly enacted a comprehensive property tax statute, 1973 Tenn.Pub.Acts, ch. 226. This provided that nonbusiness tangible personal property should be assessed at five percent of its value, subject to exemptions above referred to.

Experience in Tennessee under this statute was similar to that in Illinois referred to in the Lehnhausen case, supra. Attempts to administer the system proved futile and produced almost no revenue. As a result the General Assembly amended the [321]

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Bluebook (online)
734 S.W.2d 318, 1987 Tenn. LEXIS 1068, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sherwood-co-v-clary-tenn-1987.