Union Pacific Resources Co. v. State Board of Equalization

895 P.2d 464, 1995 Wyo. LEXIS 81, 1995 WL 302466
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedMay 18, 1995
Docket93-265
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 895 P.2d 464 (Union Pacific Resources Co. v. State Board of Equalization) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Union Pacific Resources Co. v. State Board of Equalization, 895 P.2d 464, 1995 Wyo. LEXIS 81, 1995 WL 302466 (Wyo. 1995).

Opinions

THOMAS, Justice.

Union Pacific Resources Company (UPRC) here charges the Wyoming State Board of Equalization (Board) with acting illegally in declining to exercise jurisdiction to decide UPRC’s petition for a declaration concerning the point of valuation to determine taxable value for oil and gas production. After this court’s decision in Union Pacific Resources Co. v. State of Wyoming, 839 P.2d 356 (Wyo. 1992), (UPRC I), UPRC filed its petition seeking a determination of the point of valuation, which the Board dismissed. The Board ruled, in the absence of appropriate rules for proceedings in which declaratory relief was sought, it would decline jurisdiction even though Wyo.Stat. § 39-l-304(a)(iv) (Supp. 1992) might support its authority to grant such relief. The Board concluded it was not permitted by statute to undertake the appropriate rulemaking unless there was a petition filed by an interested party or by the Department of Revenue. When judicial review of the order of dismissal was pursued in the district court, that court affirmed the Board. We are satisfied the Board was not required to conduct a declaratory proceeding and issue an advisory ruling in this situation. The judgment of the district court is affirmed.

In its Brief of Appellant, UPRC frames these issues:

(1) The State Board of Equalization acted illegally by declining to exercise jurisdiction to decide appellant’s petition, and acted contrary to the Board’s own rules and regulations.
(2) The State Board of Equalization erred by concluding that it “lacked the rules in this area” to consider the appellant’s petition and in dismissing it.
(3) The State Board of Equalization’s conclusions are arbitrary, an abuse of discretion, and are not in accordance with Wyoming law, or this court’s decision in UPRC I.

In the Brief of the State Board of Equalization, the articulated issues are:

Under Wyoming law is the Board of Equalization required to engage in advisory decision-making upon the request of the taxpayer, and thereby circumvent this court’s holding that UPRC exhaust its administrative remedies?
Do the doctrines of res judicata and collateral estoppel apply in this case and bar relitigation of the same issue by UPRC?
Is this case rendered moot by the completion of the audits?

This case is an aftermath of UPRC I, in which UPRC sought a declaratory judgment with respect to the proper point of valuation for oil and gas production for purposes of tax assessment. We held UPRC had failed to exhaust its administrative remedies and, therefore, judicial relief was not available. Following precedent, we recognized primary jurisdiction with respect to tax assessment matters lies with the administrative agencies. Consequently, the effort to have an adjudication of the proper point of valuation in the courts prior to the completion of the administrative proceedings was futile.

Subsequent to that determination, UPRC filed a Petition for Declaration with the Board of Equalization asking it to determine that the point of valuation be at the wellhead. Nothing in the record indicates that, when the petition was filed, the undisputed facts recited in UPRC I, upon which the summary [466]*466judgment and the appeal were decided, had changed. The Department of Audit still had not completed its audit, and the Department of Revenue had not made any changes to the tax assessments for 1987 and 1988, the years in question. In its brief, UPRC explained that, “[ajnticipating the auditors were going to include some post wellhead transportation and processing costs as a part of the taxable value, on May 29, 1990, Appellant affirmatively filed a [request for] refund with the Department of Revenue and Taxation for mineral production for the years 1987 and 1988 pursuant to W.S. § 39-6-304 and W.S. § 39-4-101.” Later, in justifying its position, UPRC said: “In filing it’s [sic] Petition, Appellant anticipated that if a point of value could be set by the State Board, the taxable value established in the audits would then be completed in compliance with the law.”

The petition sought an order from the Board to require the Department of Audit and Department of Revenue to utilize the wellhead as the proper point of valuation. The Department of Revenue filed a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. Oral arguments were held on the motion, but no evi-dentiary hearing was held. The Board dismissed UPRC’s petition with prejudice, and UPRC’s Motion to Reconsider filed with the Board was denied.

UPRC then filed its Petition for Review in the Third Judicial District. After briefs were filed and a hearing was held, the court ruled “the decision of the Board of Equalization declining to exercise jurisdiction was neither arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, not in accordance with law, nor unsupported by substantial evidence.” The district court affirmed the Board, but held the dismissal should be without prejudice. UPRC appeals from that order.

It seems UPRC concluded the thrust of UPRC I was to direct it to seek the declaratory relief before the Board, and such a course would demonstrate the exhaustion of its administrative remedies necessary to permit judicial review. We must correct that misperception. In UPRC I, we quoted from Rocky Mountain Oil and Gas Ass’n v. State, 645 P.2d 1163, 1168 (Wyo.1982), where the majority said:

However, there is a restriction on the availability of a declaratory judgment action with reference to its applicability to administrative matters. Where the action would result in a prejudging of issues that should be decided in the first instance by an administrative body, it should not lie. This is because, if it be otherwise, all decisions by the several agencies could be bypassed, and the district court would be administering the activities of the executive branch of the government. Public Service Commission of Utah v. Wycoff Co., 344 U.S. 237, 73 S.Ct. 236, 97 L.Ed. 291 (1952); and City of Cheyenne v. Sims, Wyo., 521 P.2d 1347 (1974). * * *.
Accordingly, where the relief desired is in the nature of a substitution of judicial decision for that of the agency on issues pertaining to the administration of the subject matter for which the agency was created, the action should not be entertained.

We perceive no reason the same justification for the refusal of judicial relief should not apply to the Board in the context of our current structure for the assessment of taxes. In 1991, the legislature separated the Department of Revenue from the Board, creating two agencies: one for the valuation of property for tax assessments, and the other for reviewing the valuation in an administrative forum.

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Union Pacific Resources Co. v. State Board of Equalization
895 P.2d 464 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1995)

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Bluebook (online)
895 P.2d 464, 1995 Wyo. LEXIS 81, 1995 WL 302466, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/union-pacific-resources-co-v-state-board-of-equalization-wyo-1995.