Court Opinion

ID: 9645926
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 21:40:32.844973+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:33.032772
License: Public Domain

KILGARLIN, Justice,
dissenting.
I join in Justice Robertson’s dissenting opinion but write separately to amplify my disagreement with the court. Section 42.28 of the Property Tax Code only exempts “the chief appraiser, the county, the State Property Tax Board, or the commissioners court” from ordinary security requirements under Tex.R.App.P. 40 and 46. The legislature provided no exemption for appraisal districts and appraisal review boards, and the court should not inject its own notions of “policy” in contravention of the clear language of the statute.
In an effort to circumvent the clear legislative delineation of those “excused by law” from filing an appeal bond, the court pronounces an appraisal district to be a “governmental agent of the county.” 751 S.W.2d at 861. This the court does with complete aplomb even though it subsequently acknowledges by footnote that Tex.Prop.Tax Code Ann. § 6.01(c) makes an appraisal district “a political subdivision of the state.”
To say that an appraisal district is the agent of the county is to totally ignore section 6.03(c) of the Code. That section provides that the five-member board of directors of the district is appointed by the governing bodies of the incorporated cities and towns and of the school districts participating in the appraisal district. If anyone’s agent, the appraisal district would logically be the agent of the municipalities and school districts.
The Property Tax Code provides many indications that the legislature understood and intended that only those persons and entities listed in section 42.28 would be exempt from filing appeal bonds. This can be seen in the numerous and precise code references to various persons and entities. For example, under §§ 42.031 and 1.04(12), the county as a taxing unit is entitled to *863appeal an order of the appraisal review board determining a challenge by the county. Under § 42.03, a county may appeal certain orders of the State Property Tax Board. Under § 42.02, the chief appraiser is entitled to appeal certain orders of the appraisal review board if he has written approval of the appraisal district board of directors. Sections 6.01 and 6.41 specifically establish and define appraisal districts and appraisal review boards.
In light of the statutory scheme as a whole and its precise references to various persons and entities, I conclude that the legislature intended only those parties specifically listed in section 42.28 to be exempt from filing an appeal bond. No appeal was perfected under Tex.R.App.P. 40(a)(1), and I would therefore affirm the court of appeals’ judgment of dismissal. Any incongruities created by section 42.28 are matters for legislative, not judicial, correction. I accordingly dissent from the court’s decision to remand this cause to the court of appeals.
PHILLIPS, CJ., and WALLACE, J., join in this dissenting opinion.