Opinion ID: 852846
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Available Remedies

Text: Indiana Code § 6-1.1-15-1 et seq. sets forth the procedures for review and appeal of property tax assessments. Among other things, a taxpayer may file a Form 133 Petition to request a correction of errors for one or more of the following reasons: (1) The description of the real property was in error. (2) The assessment was against the wrong person. (3) Taxes on the same property were charged more than one (1) time in the same year. (4) There was a mathematical error in computing the taxes or penalties on the taxes. (5) There was an error in carrying delinquent taxes forward from one (1) tax duplicate to another. (6) The taxes, as a matter of law, were illegal. (7) There was a mathematical error in computing an assessment. (8) Through an error of omission by any state or county officer the taxpayer was not given credit for an exemption or deduction permitted by law.
Even though injunction may not be an available remedy, the fact remains that the property taxes imposed in this case are based on unconstitutional reassessment statutes. An unconstitutional act is not law; it confers no rights; it imposes no duties; it affords no protection; it creates no office; it is, in legal contemplation, as inoperative as though it had never been passed. State v. Steinwedel, 203 Ind. 457, 180 N.E. 865, 867 (1932). Consequently, the property taxes assessed pursuant to these unconstitutional statutes are illegal as a matter of law. See I.C. § 6-1.1-15-12(a)(6). It is on this ground that the homeowners here should be entitled to relief. And the relief should entail payment of property taxes due and owing based on the preexisting assessments with appropriate refunds for all or a portion of tax installments already paid under the 2002 assessments. See I.C. § 6-1.1-26-1(4)(B). In the meantime there is nothing to prohibit DLGF from ordering a State conducted reassessment under the provisions of Indiana Code § 6-1.1-4-35 enacted in 2004. The majority suggests that homeowners have an available remedy under the authority of Department of Local Gov't Fin. v. Commonwealth Edison Co. of Ind., 820 N.E.2d 1222, 2005 WL 67130 (No. 49S10-0307-TA-293) (Ind. Jan. 13, 2005). However, it appears to me that Commonwealth Edison must be read in conjunction with Lake County Prop. Tax Assessment Bd. of Appeals v. BP Amoco Corp., 820 N.E.2d 1231 (No. 49S10-0309-TA-00400) (Ind. Jan. 13, 2005). And as I read BP Amoco, only if at least one taxpayer has already timely filed a Form 130 petition challenging the methodology used in generating the 2002 Lake County assessments, and only if through the administrative review process there is a determination that the taxpayer is entitled to relief, then and only then may the homeowners in this case possibly be afforded relief by filing Form 133 petitions. Id. at 820 N.E.2d at 1236-37. In sum, as I understand the majority's position, although the taxes in this case were assessed under unconstitutional assessment statutes, that fact alone has no practical consequence. Rather, in order to obtain relief, homeowners must advance an argument independent of the statutes' unconstitutionality. I cannot endorse this view. It is small comfort to these homeowners for the Court to declare in one breath that the challenged statutes constitute unconstitutional special legislation, a proposition with which I agree, and in the next breath declare the functional equivalent of so what. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent from Part III of the majority opinion. In all other respects I concur.