Superior Oil Co. v. BOARD OF TRUST. OF MAGNOLIA ISD

410 S.W.2d 504, 1966 Tex. App. LEXIS 2419
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 2, 1966
Docket4143
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 410 S.W.2d 504 (Superior Oil Co. v. BOARD OF TRUST. OF MAGNOLIA ISD) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Superior Oil Co. v. BOARD OF TRUST. OF MAGNOLIA ISD, 410 S.W.2d 504, 1966 Tex. App. LEXIS 2419 (Tex. Ct. App. 1966).

Opinion

GRISSOM, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from the judgments in two cases, in effect consolidated on appeal, in favor of the School District et al. against the Superior Oil Company. Superior alleged that the Magnolia Independent School District and its board of equalization on September 10th, 1962, arbitrarily discriminated against it in fixing the value of its property and unlawfully levied an excessive amount of taxes against it. Superior sought to enjoin the school district from attempting to collect taxes based upon such alleged unlawful discrimination and valuation and a mandatory injunction requiring the School District to accept in full payment the taxes due an amount theretofore paid by Superior, which amount was based upon its rendition.

Superior alleged that after January 1, 1962, it filed with the tax assessor its rendition and inventory for said year of all its properties within the district, that said rendition showed 37% of the value of all its properties as of January 1, 1962, showing the value of all its property was $4,095,-837 but that its value was actually $4,029,-100.00; that prior to 1961 said district had used 37% of the value of its property on which to compute taxes at the rate fixed by the board; that Superior received notice that the board of equalization would meet and it would be heard; that on September 10, 1962, Superior appeared before said board and presented conclusive and undisputed evidence of the value of its property in said district on January 1, 1962; that said evidence established that the value of its property was $4,029,100.00; that no other evidence was presented but that said board, without evidence raising an issue of fact rejected and disregarded such only evidence before it, and fixed the value of Superior’s property at $6,488,700.00 or $2,-459,600.00 more than the value so established. Superior alleged that the only evidence before the board on September 10th was, as a matter of law, final and fixed its value for 1962.

Superior alleged that said action by the first board (Sept. 10th) was final and that a subsequent attempt of said board to rescind its actions was void and did not affect its finality; that Superior had in another suit filed against said school district, its trustees and the original board of equalization, asserted its right to pay taxes on a $4,029,100.00 valuation equalized at 40%, which amounted to $1,611,640.00 and the taxes thereon to $24,174.60, which had been paid into the court and by it paid to said school district.

Superior alleged that the defendants’ answer in the first case affirmatively recited that a board of equalization for 1962 was created by the trustees on November 6, 1962; that plaintiff was notified to appear before said board on November 23, 1962 to show whether the assessed value of its properties in the district should not be raised; that Superior appeared before that *506 board at said time and protested the validity of the proceedings, introduced evidence and cross-examined a witness for that board and on December 13, 1962, it was notified that said board had fixed the actual cash market value of its properties at $6,159,180.00 and an assessed value, equalized at 40%, of $2,463,670.00; that said new board of equalization in thus fixing the value of Superior’s property acted without authority because the first board at its September 10, 1962, hearing finally fixed Superior’s property value and taxes and same was not subject to rescission but a final adjudication establishing same.

Superior alleged that no evidence was offered other than that of its witnesses, in that, defendants' valuation witness admitted that he made no proper appraisal of plaintiff’s property as of January 1, 1962, nor had he done so for four or five years, nor did he have any knowledge of plaintiff’s current operating costs; that he ignored plaintiff’s gas price; that he did not take into account the existing law on the proper effect of gas price on in-place gas; that while the valuation shown by the evidence on the first hearing, September 10th, was accurate and was based upon evidence of the true actual gas values, said later board ignored same and gave effect to improper and uncertain values and methods of arriving thereat.

Superior alleged that said school district employed its own appraisers; that the/ had placed a value on land in said district at not less than $130.00 per acre; that the school district’s plan of establishing actual cash market value and assessed value was void; that it was neither equal nor uniform, in that, the necessary results of the later board’s action was to equalize Superior’s property at 40% of its actual cash market value and all other land in the district at approximately 24% of its value; that the plan of the district so adopted by its first board of equalization on September 10th was void, as a matter of law.

Superior alleged that the increased valuation placed upon its property by the later board for 1962 was excessive and discriminatory and said increased valuations and the method employed by it denied Superior the rights guaranteed to it by the Constitution of the United States and the laws of Texas to have its value determined equally and uniformly with other taxpayers in the county, and upon the evidence introduced before said board. Substantially the same allegations were contained in the first suit concerning the action of the school district in fixing the value and assessing the taxes of Superior.

The defendants, among other things, denied that the action of the board of equalization which finally fixed the value of plaintiff’s property and the tax thereon herein complained of placed an arbitrary value upon Superior’s property. Defendants alleged that on November 2, 1962, Bradbury, Qualine and Graves, sitting as a board of equalization, by resolution, rescinded in toto and declared of no force all prior acts of its board of equalization, that they resigned as members of said board on November 6, 1962; that a new board of equalization was appointed and met on November 23, 1962, to hear evidence of the value of Superior’s property; that it heard such evidence and on November 30, 1962, that said new board re-convened and heard evidence as to the market value of Superior’s property within said district; that, based upon the evidence adduced before that board as to the cash market value of Superior’s property within the district, it faithfully endeavored to equalize all property within said district subject to taxation and arrive at its true market value, and assessed said properties at 40% thereof.

In a trial to the court, it was decreed that Superior Oil Company take nothing and it has appealed. So far as we are here concerned, the same action and the same disposition was made in each of said cases. Superior in its able brief says in effect that its suit was to enjoin appellees from putting into effect an arbitrary plan of taxation and *507

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Bluebook (online)
410 S.W.2d 504, 1966 Tex. App. LEXIS 2419, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/superior-oil-co-v-board-of-trust-of-magnolia-isd-texapp-1966.