Title: Turner v. Levin

State: ohio

Issuer: Ohio Supreme Court

Document:

[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as 
Turner v. Levin, Slip Opinion No. 2010-Ohio-922.] 
 
 
NOTICE 
This slip opinion is subject to formal revision before it is published in 
an advance sheet of the Ohio Official Reports.  Readers are requested 
to promptly notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of Ohio, 
65 South Front Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215, of any typographical or 
other formal errors in the opinion, in order that corrections may be 
made before the opinion is published. 
 
SLIP OPINION NO. 2010-OHIO-922 
TURNER, APPELLANT, v. LEVIN, TAX COMMR., APPELLEE. 
[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it 
may be cited as Turner v. Levin, Slip Opinion No. 2010-Ohio-922.] 
Appeal dismissed for want of jurisdiction. 
(No. 2009-1847 — Submitted March 9, 2010 — Decided March 16, 2010.) 
APPEAL from the Board of Tax Appeals, No. 2007-K-768. 
ON SHOW CAUSE ORDER 
__________________ 
{¶ 1} On January 15, 2010, the court ordered sua sponte that appellant 
show cause why this appeal should not be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction due to 
appellant’s failure to specify the “errors complained of” as required by R.C. 
5717.04.  In his response to that order, the appellant points to the statement in his 
notice of appeal that the BTA denied relief to the appellant by “improperly 
interpreting every instance of fact laid out” by the appellant in his notice of appeal 
to the BTA.  We hold that that statement fails to set forth errors of the BTA as 
required by R.C. 5717.04, and we therefore dismiss the appeal. 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
2 
 
{¶ 2} An “assignment of error in a notice of appeal does not confer 
jurisdiction if ‘the errors set out are such as might be advanced in nearly any 
case.’ ”   Brown v. Levin, 119 Ohio St.3d 335, 2008-Ohio-4081, 894 N.E.2d 35, ¶ 
18, quoting Queen City Valves, Inc. v. Peck, (1954), 161 Ohio St. 579, 583, 53 
O.O. 430, 120 N.E.2d 310; see also Richter Transfer Co. v. Bowers (1962), 174 
Ohio St. 113, 21 O.O.2d 369, 186 N.E.2d 832 (appeal dismissed when the notice 
did not specify the errors complained of); Lawson Milk Co. v. Bowers (1961), 171 
Ohio St. 418, 14 O.O.2d 217, 171 N.E.2d 495.  The notice of appeal in this case 
falls squarely within this doctrine:  the claim that a tribunal has misinterpreted a 
pleading, without more particularity, is too vague and general to give notice of 
what the appellant intends to argue.  Moreover, we note that the notice of appeal 
in no way gives notice of the particular legal arguments raised in the appellant’s 
briefs and thereby fails to furnish a jurisdictional basis for the court to consider 
those arguments.  Brown, ¶ 19; Newman v. Levin, 120 Ohio St.3d 127, 2008-
Ohio-5202, 896 N.E.2d 995, ¶ 28. 
{¶ 3} For the foregoing reasons, this appeal must be dismissed for want 
of jurisdiction.1   
So ordered. 
 
MOYER, 
C.J., 
and 
PFEIFER, 
LUNDBERG 
STRATTON, 
O’CONNOR, 
O’DONNELL, LANZINGER, and CUPP, JJ., concur. 
__________________ 
 
Robin Turner, pro se. 
 
Richard Cordray, Attorney General, and Julie E. Brigner and Damion 
Clifford, Assistant Attorneys General, for appellee. 
_____________________ 
                                                 
1. The Tax Commissioner has filed a motion to strike.  That motion is denied as moot.