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Whelan v. State

271 S.W.2d 108, 4 Oil & Gas Rep. 1670, 1954 Tex. App. LEXIS 2060
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 1, 1954
Docket6738
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 271 S.W.2d 108 (Whelan v. State) 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
Whelan v. State, 271 S.W.2d 108, 4 Oil & Gas Rep. 1670, 1954 Tex. App. LEXIS 2060 (Tex. Ct. App. 1954).

Opinion

HALL, Chief Justice.

This is a tax suit instituted by the State of Texas and Harrison County, for itself and the Harleton Common School District No. 18, against appellants for the collection of certain taxes assessed against their gas property for the years 1950, 1951 and 1952, and to foreclose tax lien against same. As stated in appellants’ brief: “Defendants (appellants) answered with general denial, that the assessments were in violation of the Constitutions of the State of Texas and of the United States in that they were discriminatory and based upon fundamentally wrong methods of taxation.”1

The case was tried to a jury upon seventy-two special issues with the directive by the trial court that if the jury answered special issues one, two and three “no” they need not answer any other issue. The jury answered special issues one, two, and three “no.” Upon these answers judgment was rendered for appellees for the taxes alleged to be due, together with penalty and interest and a foreclosure of tax lien on their property.

Appellants’ first point is: “The trial court erred in overruling defendants’ motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict of the jury for the reason that it was established as a matter of. law that the boards of equalization for each of the years 1950, 1951 and 1952, designedly, systematically and arbitrarily adopted and usedi a fixed and systematic policy of assessing for taxing purposes non-producing oil and gas leases of at least 200,000 acres at a flat value of $1.00 per acre, whereas said property had a fair value of from $5.00’ to $200.00 per acre; and in assessing all cattle, 35,000 head in 1950, 40,000 head in 1951 and 50,000 head in 1952, at a flat value of $15.00 per head regardless of the true market or real value of said property, thereby depriving Harrison County and the *111 State of Texas and other taxing units, plaintiffs in this case, of a substantial amount of taxes and substantially increasing the tax burden on the defendants and their property in violation of Section 1,, Article 8 of the Constitution of Texas and Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.” By point two appellants assert that the method of assessing non-producing oil and gas lands at $1 per acre-and assessing all cattle at the flat rate of $15 per head employed by the equalization board of Harrison County, hereinafter referred to as the board, as set out in point one, is contrary to Section 1, Article 8 of the Texas Constitution, Vernon’s Ann.St. and of Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution. By their point two-a, appellants assert that such arbitrary assessment by the board of cattle and non-producing oil and gas leases at a flat rate, regardless of their actual cash value, while appellants’ property was assessed at thirty per cent of its value renders the assessment against appellants’ property null and void. And by points three and four appellants assert (a) there was no evidence to support the jury’s negative answer to special issue No. 1 and (b) that the jury’s answer to said special issue was against the overwhelming preponderance of the evidence. These points will be considered and discussed together.

In our opinion these points raise the principal issues on this appeal.

The facts reveal that appellants own and operate certain gas wells in northwest Harrison County in what is known as the Whelan Gas Field. Their gas wells are capable of producing gas and distillate from both the Travis Peak and Rodessa formations. Appellants introduced testimony to the effect that the board assessed all non-productive oil and gas leases without regard to their location at a flat rate of $1 per acre for the years 1950, 1951 and 1952, the years covered by this suit, and assessed all cattle in the county at $15 per head. The facts show further that there were about 200,000 acres of nonproductive oil and gas leases rendered in Harrison County during the years covered by this suit, the major portion of which was assessed at $1 per acre. Some of this acreage was assessed at less than $1 during some of the years in controversy and some at a larger figure. The same holds true with respect to the assessed value of the cattle. The facts also show that Harrison County during those years employed the engineering firm of King, Latham and Stults to aid and assist the board in fixing the valuation of the numerous gas and oil wells in the county for taxing purposes. Mr. Stults of that firm seems to have done most of the work in this regard, and he personally aided the board in fixing the value of the several producing wells in the different fields. His qualification as a petroleum engineer was admitted. This witness testified that the valuation he placed on appellants’ producing gas wells was fair and equitable and was on the same basis as that recommended for the Stanolind and Hollands-worth producing wells in the Woodlawn Field, also in Harrison County, several miles to the east of the Whelan Field. There is substantial evidence that all producing oil and gas properties in Harrison County were assessed by the board at thirty to thirty-three per cent of its cash market value. In 1950 the total assessed value on the tax rolls of the 180,519 acres of non-producing oil and gas leases was $199,255.00; in 1951 the total assessed value of .210,100 acres of non-producing oil and gas leases was $215,678.00; and in 1952 the total assessed value of the 292,138 acres of non-producing oil and gas leases was $233,641.00.

The assessed value of appellants’ property filed by them with the assessor-collector, together with the assessed value of said property fixed by the equalization board for the three years in controversy, is set out below. The property is listed on each of said inventories of the appellants and on each of said tax rolls. Following each item of property is the value placed on same by the appellants and followed by the values assessed against said property by the board:

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Related

Flora v. Scott
398 S.W.2d 627 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1965)
Aetna Casualty and Surety Company v. Perez
360 S.W.2d 157 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1962)
Whelan v. State
282 S.W.2d 378 (Texas Supreme Court, 1955)

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Bluebook (online)
271 S.W.2d 108, 4 Oil & Gas Rep. 1670, 1954 Tex. App. LEXIS 2060, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/whelan-v-state-texapp-1954.