Court Opinion

ID: 9602165
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:52:16.148891+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:01.216144
License: Public Domain

Gunter, Justice,
dissenting.
The appellants brought this action below for themselves as individual taxpayers of Fannin County and also as representatives of a class, the class consisting of all Fannin County taxpayers for the taxable year 1972.
The 1972 county digest had been submitted to the State Revenue Commissioner for his approval as required by law. Code Ann. § 92-6917. The Revenue Commissioner did not approve the digest as submitted, but he ordered certain adjustments in the digest as authorized by Code Ann. § 92-7001. The county authorities made the adjustments as directed by the Revenue Commissioner as they were required to do pursuant to Code Ann. § 92-7002. On December 6, 1972, the Revenue Commissioner approved the county digest as adjusted by the local authorities in accordance with his order.
This class action was then filed on February 27, 1973, presumably because of this court’s decision in Griggs v. Greene, 230 Ga. 257 (197 SE2d 116), holding that the adjustments ordered by the Revenue Commissioner were not constitutionally permissible, the net result of the Griggs decision by this court being to make the 1972 Fannin County digest voidable, because of the constitutionally impermissible adjustments ordered by the Revenue Commissioner.
The trial judge in this case dutifully followed this court’s decision in Griggs and ruled that the adjustments ordered and contained in the digest approved December 6, 1972, were unconstitutional and "illegal and ineffective as to the plaintiffs in this case.” However, the trial court’s judgment, although it declared the 1972 digest "illegal and ineffective as to the plaintiffs in this case,” afforded no relief to those members of the class (taxpayers of Fannin County) who had paid their 1972 taxes.
The majority of this court has today held that the 1972 Fannin County tax digest was void and that the *8named appellants and those members of the class (taxpayers of Fannin County) who have not paid their 1972 taxes are entitled to relief pursuant to a revised and approved 1972 digest for the county. To me, there is nothing fair and equitable about such a decision and such a result.
As I read this record there is no legal and approved 1972 tax digest for Fannin County. It is my understanding of the law of this state that payments made by a taxpayer to a county tax collector pursuant to an illegal and void tax digest are not "voluntary payments of taxes.” "Payments of taxes” are payments made by a taxpayer pursuant to a valid and legal digest.
In Colvard v. Ridley, 219 Ga. 361, 364 (133 SE2d 364), this court said: "We are of the opinion that taxes may not be collected... until the digest has been submitted to the State Revenue Commissioner, approved by him, and returned to the county.” That has not been done in this case. Pursuant to this court’s rulings, the Fannin County digest approved on December 6, 1972, was a void and illegal digest. Any payments made pursuant to it by any taxpayer were not "voluntary payment of taxes.”
Also, in the Colvard case, supra, where twenty-eight hundred taxpayers had paid their taxes and seven hundred had not, and where a tax digest had not been legally approved by the Revenue Commissioner, this court held (p. 363) that "there had been no previous assessment, as the prior assessments were null and void.” The Colvard decision further directed the trial court to modify its judgment "by ordering that the tax commissioner submit the tax digest to the State Revenue Commissioner for his approval as required by law and by further providing that in case any taxes are voluntarily paid prior to approval of the digest by the Commissioner and in case of any change in the digest by the Commissioner resulting in overpayment of taxes due that the overpayment be refunded to such taxpayers.”
It is my view that all of the taxpayers of Fannin County for the year 1972 are members of a class entitled to any benefits resulting from this action brought by the appellants as representatives of the class. It is unjust and certainly inequitable to permit some county taxpayers to *9benefit from a void digest and deny those benefits to other taxpayers.
This court should do the same thing in this case that it did in Colvard. I would reverse the judgment below; I would direct the trial court to enter a judgment requiring the submission of a 1972 digest to the State Revenue Commissioner for approval; and the trial court’s judgment should further provide that any payments made prior to the approval of the digest by the Commissioner, to the extent that such payments are in excess of the amounts determined to be due under a valid and legal 1972 digest, are to be refunded to the taxpayers or allowed to them as credits on subsequent tax bills.
I dissented in Griggs v. Greene, supra, and I dissented in all subsequent cases birthed by that decision, because it was my view that the adjustments made in the tax digest by the Revenue Commissioner were not constitutionally impermissible. However, since this court has seen fit to hold these adjusted tax digests void, I can see neither the wisdom nor the fairness in permitting some taxpayers to receive economic benefit and others to receive economic detriment by virtue of these void digests. I would require that all 1972 Fannin County taxpayers be treated alike in this case.
I respectfully dissent.