Court Opinion

ID: 9709349
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 03:45:35.088909+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:47.944242
License: Public Domain

BAKE WELL, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I am unable to concur in the Court’s opinion.
In the equalization of the several county assessments of property the power and duty of the Board of Equalization is defined and limited by SDC 57.0420(1), (2) and (3). The State Board of Equalization is a creature of the statute and it has only such powers as are conferred upon or granted to it by the statute upon which it assumed to act, and such board must be able to support its action by statutory authorization. If it had the authority which it exercised in the equalization of the assessments in question here, it must be derived from the statute. Campbell v. Minnehaha Nat. Bank, 11 S.D. 133, 76 N.W. 10; Orr v. State Board of Equalization, 3 Idaho Hasb. 190, 28 P. 416; Bell v. Meeker, 39 Ind.App. 224, 78 N.E. 641; Fesler v. Bosson, 189 Ind. 484, 128 N.E. 145; Maxwell Land Grant Co. v. Jones, 28 N.M. 427, 213 P. 1034.
*454An Idaho statute practically identical with our SDC 57.0420 except that it does not provide for equalization of personal property by classes, was construed in Orr v. State Board of Equalization, 3 Idaho, Hasb., 190, 28 P. 416, 420. In - a certiorari proceeding to review the action of the State Board of Equalization, the Court said: “* * * no power is given it to assess or fix the value of any kind of property. * * * It is profitless to multiply words to show what the board is not empowered to do. What they can do may be given in few words. They may add to or deduct from the aggregate valuation of real and personal property of a county by a certain percentage. The statute, having specified what they may do, necessarily excludes every other power.”
While only going to show a strict limitation to be applied to the equalization of assessments by the Board, this Court in Campbell v. Minnehaha Nat. Bank, 11 S.D. 133, 76 N.W. 10, 11, held that under a statute authorizing the State Board of Equalization to consider certain classes of personal property one of which was “ ‘the total value of stocks or shares’ ”, the Board was not authorized to divide the property so classified and raise the value of bank stock without increasing that of other stocks and shares.
In the equalization of county assessments the Board has no power under our statutes to assess property. That is the exclusive function of the assessor and local equalization boards. The Board’s power is restricted to the equalization of the assessments made and equalized in the counties with no power to increase the total aggregate value of the property as shown by such assessments. The key words in this statute are “raise” and “deduct”; and the phrases “too high” and “too low” and “proportionate value”. The statute empowers the Board, if it believes the valuation shown in a particular assessment to be too high or too iow, to deduct from and add to the aggregate value of that county such rate percentage as will raise or reduce the same to its proper proportionate value. And this is the only method by which equalization may be effected. The sum total of all the equalized assessments of the several counties may not be materially increased or decreased. The test of whether the Board performed its duties in this respect is best deter*455mined by the results attained as disclosed .by its records which show that in eighteen of the counties personal property values were decreased in a total sum of $7,208,904, and real estate values were decreased in four counties. This reduction of real estate values represents a total of $4,754,636.' These reductions of real and personal property taken together amounted to a total of $11,963,540. Adverting to the reduction made in real estate in these four counties, the record of the Board shows a reduction in Buffalo County of $274,973, in Campbell County $347,967, in Hamlin County $3,508,885, and in Mellette County $622,811. The over-all or total increase in the values of real and personal property was in an aggregate sum in excess of $700,000,000, a figure which requires no demonstration to show that it is far in excess of any increase necessary to equalize the assessments by the mode provided by statute.
As I understand the Court’s opinion true and full value is the only standard upon which the Board may base a belief as to whether the assessed value is too high or too l'ow. This I concede to be true but since it is proportionate value rather than true and full value which is to be ultimately achieved, true value may not be used further than as a factor in the adjustment of assessed value in each of the several counties.
If, however, we use true and full value only as a yardstick with which to establish the ratio between the true value and the assessed value of the property in the county to which it applies, and, as to each county pursue the same plan, the average percentage by which all the assessments exceed or fall short of full value becomes a proper factor by which to determine the rate per cent necessary to raise or lower each county assessment to an amount properly proportionate to other county assessments.
This is the mode provided by statute for equalizing county assessments at proper proportionate value. Such value is proportionate to the equalized value of the property in every other county in the state and the aggregate total of the assessed values will not and cannot be substantially in excess of the total of county valuations.
*456The fact that the total is in excess of the county totals by more than $700,000,000 shows that it was not the county assessments which were equalized, but some other value more nearly approaching true value.
The question here is not whether in its purported equalization the Board has used a standard in excess of true value, but is rather whether it has equalized at a value properly proportionate to the county assessments, which is the mode required by statute.
The power to equalize and to assess, if necessary, the property of any person, partnership, association, company or corporation so that it may be assessed as provided by law, as is vested in the Board by SDC 57.0420 relates to other powers original and appellate possessed by the Board and is not a power to be exercised in the equalization of assessments between the different counties of the state. Equalization of county assessments is applied to abstracts furnished by the County Auditors of the several counties which show no individual assessments of the entities before mentioned. As to county assessments the power of the Board is restricted as provided by Subdivisions (1), (2), (3) and (4) of SDC 57.0420. The last named subdivision provides that the Board shall certify to the County Auditor the equalized value of “all property within such county assessed by the State Board of Equalization as required by law” and, in addition thereto shall specify the rate per centum added to or deducted from the value of each class of real and personal property.
It is plainly evident that the Board has greatly exceeded the jurisdiction and power vested in it by the laws of this state by undertaking, in the absence of any power, to reassess the property with which it dealt. Its action in this respect is a nullity and void. I fully concur in the opinion of Judge HANSON.