Court Opinion

ID: 9741244
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:52:16.308799+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:23.079726
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(specially concurring).
I was not a member of this Court when the Knodel decision was handed down. I must confess that I have great misgivings concerning the precedential language used in Knodel. Therefore, I cannot, carte blanche, accept the language of Knodel which is approved by this decision. The particular language that I find repugnant in Knodel is this statement: “Noncompliance with mandatory statutes and excessive valuations are not sufficient findings to grant a taxpayer relief.” I believe that statement to be a dangerous recitation of law. It is an open sesame to administrative wrongdoing by a director of equalization. The findings of fact in Knodel were weak and this led to a demise of the taxpayer’s cause. As I read Knodel, had the findings of fact been more explicit a different result might have prevailed.
As uncomfortable as I am with the language of Knodel, I join my colleagues in affirming the trial court feeling compelled to do so by the application of the doctrine of res judicata. In the instant suits, both the facts which establish the right the taxpayers seek to enforce and the wrongs they are seeking to redress are the same as those underlying Knodel.