Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Covert v. Williamson Central Appraisal District (Tex.App.- Austin 2007)

Rox Covert, Duke Covert and Danay Covert v. Williamson Central Appraisal District, No. 03-06-00218-CV (Tex. App. - Austin, Nov. 30, 2007) (Opinion by Justice Henson)(property tax protests, cases, appeals) (Before Chief Justice Law, Justices Puryear and Henson)
Appeal from 277th District Court of Williamson County

FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF WILLIAMSON COUNTY, 277TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT
NO.
01-466-C277, HONORABLE KEN ANDERSON, JUDGE PRESIDING

O P I N I O N

In this appeal, we decide whether a taxpayer is entitled under section 42.26 of the tax code to challenge only the land component of an ad valorem property tax appraisal of improved land, without claiming that the total appraised value of the property is unequal. See Tex. Tax Code Ann. § 42.26(a)(3) (West Supp. 2007). (1) Appellants Rox Covert, Duke Covert and Danay Covert sued Williamson Central Appraisal District ("WCAD") (2) in district court, challenging WCAD's appraisal of five separate tracts of land, three of which are improved with car dealerships, on the grounds that they were not appraised equally and uniformly. See Tex. Const. art. VIII, § 20; Tex. Tax Code Ann. § 42.26(d) (West 2001). WCAD filed a special exception, contending that the Coverts' pleadings failed to state a cause of action with respect to the three improved properties because the Coverts had alleged that only the land components, and not the entire properties, had been appraised unequally. The trial court granted WCAD's special exception and ordered the Coverts to replead. The Coverts refused, and their case was dismissed. The sole issue on appeal is whether the trial court erred in granting WCAD's special exception and in dismissing the claims after ruling that the Coverts had omitted an element of their cause of action, namely that their property was appraised unequally under section 42.26 of the tax code. Holding that the trial court did not err because the statute requires a taxpayer to challenge the appraised valuation of the entire improved property and not merely its component values, we affirm.

* * *

We therefore hold that a taxpayer challenging the equal and uniform assessment of an improved property under section 42.26 must allege that the overall appraised value of the property is unequal. While he is not prevented from bringing evidence that only the land or only the improvement was unequally assessed, the taxpayer must allege that the value of the improved property was appraised unequally in order to state a cause of action under section 42.26.

CONCLUSION

Because the trial court did not err in granting the dismissal, we affirm.
_____________________________________
Diane Henson, Justice
Before Chief Justice Law, Justices Puryear and Henson
Affirmed
Filed: November 30, 2007

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