Court Opinion

ID: 9534101
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:36:47.438693+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:29:31.299308
License: Public Domain

ERICKSON, Justice,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. Today the court announces two cases that extend Coquina Oil Corp. v. Larimer County Board of Equalization, 770 P.2d 1196 (Colo.1989). *1209This case, and its companion decision, Aurora Plaza & Conference Center v. State Board of Assessment Appeals, 770 P.2d 1204 (Colo.1989), create a barrier to taxpayer recovery of an erroneous overpayment that ignores the plain wording of section 39-10-114, 16B C.R.S. (1982). For the reasons set forth in my dissent to Coquina Oil Corp. v. Larimer County Board of Equalization, I dissent to the majority opinion’s denial of the right of a taxpayer to recover an overpayment of taxes that was the result of a clerical error. In my view, the legislature, in enacting section 39-10-114, did not intend to circumscribe the taxpayer’s right to recover an overpayment of taxes as the majority opinion does. It is fundamentally unfair to subject a taxpayer to a series of penalties for clerical errors resulting in an underpayment of taxes, and to prohibit recovery of an overpayment of taxes that is also the result of clerical errors. Limiting recovery of a refund to the three circumstances set out in the majority opinion, at 1208, ignores the plain wording of section 39-10-114, severely limits our holding in Board of Assessment Appeals v. Benbrook, 735 P.2d 860 (Colo.1987), and is not compelled or supported by the decisions cited in the opinion.
I am authorized to say that Justice LOHR and Justice KIRSHBAUM join in this dissent.