The Revenue Department agreed to classify the land as current-use. In 1990, after Roberts was elected revenue commissioner, she ordered an assessment of Mobile County property that had been granted current-use status. That review led to the conclusion that the Delaneys were only growing token timber to decrease their taxes. The Delaneys sued to challenge Roberts' decision. The case has been tied up in court ever since, and has visited the Supreme Court three times.
Appeals tend to question decisions by trial court judges.
Here, the Delaneys argued that Mobile Circuit Judge Herman Thomas made numerous errors during the 1998 trial. For example, the Delaneys contend that Thomas let the county introduce evidence that the jury shouldn't have been allowed to consider. Because the county failed to prove that case, Thomas should have ruled from the bench for the Delaneys as a matter of law, rather than letting the case proceed to the jury, the appeals court ruled. It was that ruling that Roberts and the county asked the Supreme Court to consider and overturn. With its 5-3 ruling Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that the county did make a strong case that the Delaney property wasn't timberland.