Park Solutions, LLC. v. Dekalb County Board of Tax Assessors , 336 Ga. App. 832 ( 2016 )


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  •                                THIRD DIVISION
    ELLINGTON, P. J.,
    DILLARD and MCFADDEN, JJ.
    NOTICE: Motions for reconsideration must be
    physically received in our clerk’s office within ten
    days of the date of decision to be deemed timely filed.
    http://www.gaappeals.us/rules
    March 23, 2016
    In the Court of Appeals of Georgia
    A15A2136. PARK SOLUTIONS, LLC v. DEKALB COUNTY
    BOARD OF TAX ASSESSORS.
    MCFADDEN, Judge.
    The issue in this appeal is whether a sheriff’s sale of certain real property was
    an “arm’s length, bona fide” sale under OCGA § 48-5-2 (3) so that the sale price
    constituted the property’s maximum allowable fair market value for the next taxable
    year. Because we find that the sheriff’s sale was such an arm’s length, bona fide sale,
    the superior court’s ruling to the contrary was erroneous and must be reversed.
    On June 4, 2013, Park Solutions, LLC bought a tract of land for $25,000 at a
    sheriff’s sale in DeKalb County. The sheriff’s deed provided that Mollye Devault and
    Robert Christopher Taylor were the owners of the property; that the owners made the
    deed by and through the DeKalb County sheriff, acting in his official capacity; that
    the sheriff conducted the sale to satisfy a default judgment of $37,796 obtained by
    DRST Holdings LTD; that the sale was held “at the usual place for conducting
    [s]heriff’s sales in DeKalb [C]ounty before the [c]ourthouse door;” and that Park
    Solutions was the highest bidder at the “public outcry.”
    After the sale, the county appraised the value of the property as $146,900 for
    the 2014 tax year, and Park Solutions appealed that valuation to the DeKalb County
    Board of Tax Assessors. The board of tax assessors issued a decision finding that the
    fair market value of the property was $137,700. Park Solutions appealed that decision
    to the DeKalb County Board of Equalization, which upheld the county tax assessor’s
    fair market value finding of the property as $137,700. Park Solutions then appealed
    to the superior court, asserting that pursuant to OCGA § 48-5-2 (3), the maximum
    allowable fair market value of the property for the 2014 tax year was the $25,000
    price that it had paid at the sheriff’s sale. The trial court rejected the argument,
    finding that the sheriff’s sale was not an arm’s length, bona fide sale under that statute
    because such “judicial foreclosure sales are not mentioned in the statute and also the
    parties to the sale are related and affiliated.” The trial court concluded that the county
    had accurately determined the fair market value of the property as of January 1, 2014,
    to be $137,700. Park Solutions appeals from the superior court’s final order.
    2
    1. Sheriff’s sale.
    Park Solutions asserts that the trial court erred in finding that the sheriff’s sale
    in this case was not governed by OCGA § 48-5-2 (3) because such judicial
    foreclosure sales are not mentioned in the statute. We agree with the assertion.
    OCGA § 48-5-2 (3), which is part of the code governing ad valorem taxation
    of property, provides, in pertinent part:
    “Fair market value of property” means the amount a knowledgeable
    buyer would pay for the property and a willing seller would accept for
    the property at an arm’s length, bona fide sale. . . . Notwithstanding any
    other provision of this chapter to the contrary, the transaction amount of
    the most recent arm’s length, bona fide sale in any year shall be the
    maximum allowable fair market value for the next taxable year.
    The term “arm’s length, bona fide” sale as used in this code section is defined as
    “mean[ing] a transaction which has occurred in good faith without fraud or deceit
    carried out by unrelated or unaffiliated parties, as by a willing buyer and a willing
    seller, each acting in his or her own self-interest, including but not limited to a
    distress sale, short sale, bank sale, or sale at public auction.” OCGA § 48-5-2 (.1)
    (emphasis supplied).
    Thus, OCGA § 48-5-2 (3) “provides the method for assessing [fair market]
    value as of [January 1 of the applicable tax year] . . ., with its focus on the actual
    3
    market-determined value of property on the actual date the property was acquired,
    rather than its value as much as a year later[.]” Columbus Bd. of Tax Assessors v.
    Yeoman, 
    293 Ga. 107
    , 109 (2) (744 SE2d 18) (2013). “This amounts to a freeze on
    the ad valorem tax value of property for one year. [Cit.]” Ballard v. Newton County
    Bd. of Tax Assessors, 
    332 Ga. App. 521
    , 522 (773 SE2d 780) (2015).
    In finding that this freeze on the value of the property did not apply to the
    sheriff’s sale in this case, the trial court relied on OCGA § 48-5-1, which provides
    that “[t]he intent and purpose of the tax laws of this state are to have all property and
    subjects of taxation returned at the value which would be realized from the cash sale,
    but not the forced sale, of the property and subjects as such property and subjects are
    usually sold except as otherwise provided in this chapter.” (Emphasis supplied.) The
    trial court then reasoned that foreclosure sales are considered to be forced sales and
    therefore “[r]eading [OCGA] § 48-5-2 (.1) to include judicial foreclosure sales would
    be contrary to the expressed intent of Title 48 to exclude values realized as a result
    of the forced sale of a property.”
    However, the trial court overlooked the plain language in OCGA § 48-5-1
    providing that it applies “except as otherwise provided in this chapter.” Likewise, the
    controlling portion of OCGA § 48-5-2 (3) itself expressly provides that it applies
    4
    “[n]otwithstanding any other provision of this chapter to the contrary[.]” We must
    construe these statutes together and harmonize them to ascertain the legislative intent.
    Aimwell, Inc. v. McLendon Enterprises, 
    318 Ga. App. 394
    , 397 (1) (734 SE2d 84)
    (2012). In so doing, even if we assume, without deciding, that there is some
    inconsistency between them, it is apparent from the plain language of both code
    sections that, notwithstanding anything to the contrary, the legislative intent was to
    allow the specific provision of a one-year freeze on ad valorem tax value set forth in
    § 48-5-2 (3) to control over the general expression of purpose set forth in § 48-5-1.
    See Hubert Properties, LLP v. Cobb County, 
    318 Ga. App. 321
    , 323 (1) (733 SE2d
    373) (2012) (specific statute will prevail over a general statute to resolve any
    inconsistency between them).
    Moreover, the trial court also erred in concluding that the absence of the term
    “foreclosure sale” from OCGA § 48-5-2 (.1) indicates that such sales were excluded
    by the legislature from that code section’s definition of an arm’s length, bona fide
    sale. As recited above, OCGA § 48-5-2 (.1) defines an arm’s length, bona fide sale
    as “including but not limited to a distress sale, short sale, bank sale, or sale at public
    auction.” (Emphasis supplied.) Contrary to the trial court’s interpretation of this code
    section, the legislature’s use of the phrase “including but not limited to” is not
    5
    restrictive or exclusive, and instead “reflects broad language of illustration or
    enlargement. [Cit.]” Hendry v. Hendry, 
    292 Ga. 1
    , 2 (1), n. 2 (734 SE2d 46) (2012).
    Indeed, two of the examples of the types of sales expressly included in the
    definition of an arm’s length, bona fide sale set forth in OCGA § 48-5-2 (.1) - distress
    sales and public auctions - clearly include the foreclosure sale executed by the sheriff
    in this case. “The statute does not define the . . . terms [‘distress sale’ or ‘public
    auction,’] and we therefore look to their plain and ordinary meanings as defined by
    dictionaries.” Skelhorn v. State, 
    332 Ga. App. 782
    , 787 (3) (b) (773 SE2d 782) (2015)
    (citation and punctuation omitted). Black’s Law Dictionary (10th ed. 2014), defines
    the term “distress sale” as “[a] form of liquidation in which the seller receives less for
    the goods than what would be received under normal sales conditions,” and as a
    “foreclosure . . . sale.” Under this ordinary meaning of the phrase, the sheriff’s
    foreclosure sale in this case was a distress sale as contemplated by the statute.
    Furthermore, Black’s Law Dictionary (10th ed. 2014) defines the word
    “auction” as being “[a] public sale of property to the highest bidder,” and it defines
    the term “public sale” as meaning “[a] sale made after public notice, as in an auction
    or sheriff’s sale.” Consistent with this dictionary definition, another statute in our
    official code provides that “the term ‘public sale’ means any sale, the notice of which
    6
    must by law in any manner be given to the public.” OCGA § 9-13-160 (a). Thus,
    under these definitions, the sheriff’s sale in this case was a public auction at which
    Park Solutions was the high bidder.
    “OCGA § 48-5-2 (.1) expressly defines an arm’s length, bona fide sale to
    include those types of transactions where the seller might suffer a financial loss[,]
    including distress sales . . . or sales at public auction[].” CPF Investments v. Fulton
    County Bd. of Assessors, 
    330 Ga. App. 744
    , 749 (769 SE2d 159) (2015) (punctuation
    omitted). Here, because the sheriff’s sale of the subject property was a distress sale
    and public auction, it was an arm’s length, bona fide sale under the plain terms of
    OCGA § 48-5-2 (.1). Consequently, the board of tax assessors could not “assess the
    property at a higher value in the year following the sale, regardless of whether the
    [b]oard believe[d] the sale price reflect[ed] the actual fair market value of the
    property.” CPF Investments, supra at 747, n. 4. The trial court’s findings to the
    contrary with regard to the sheriff’s sale in this case were erroneous and must be
    reversed. Compare Ballard, supra at 525 (holding that a tax sale purchaser receives
    only a defeasible fee interest and since fair market value “is not defined as the amount
    a buyer would pay to purchase, and a willing seller accept, for a defeasible interest
    7
    in property, a tax sale does not qualify as an arm’s length, bona fide sale such that the
    one-year freeze of OCGA § 48-5-2 (3) would apply.”) (emphasis in original).
    2. Parties to the sale.
    The trial court also found that the sheriff’s sale was not an arm’s length
    transaction under OCGA § 48-5-2 (.1) because the parties to the 2013 sheriff’s sale
    were DRST and Park Solutions and those parties were related in that the president of
    DRST and the manager of Park Solutions were, respectively, father and son.
    However, regardless of the relationship between the father and son and the respective
    corporate entities, the factual premise of the trial court’s ruling is flawed because
    DRST was not a party to the sale.
    As the sheriff’s deed plainly shows, the parties to the sale were the sheriff as
    the grantor, acting in his official capacity on behalf of the property owners, and Park
    Solutions as the grantee after being the highest bidder for the property at the public
    auction. See Associates Financial Svcs. Co. v. Johnson, 
    128 Ga. App. 712
    , 713 (197
    SE2d 764) (1973) (sheriffs who are legally authorized to make sales at a public outcry
    represent the sellers of the property). Thus, contrary to the trial court’s finding, DRST
    simply was not a party to the sheriff’s sale, which instead was an arm’s length sale
    between the unrelated and unaffiliated parties of the grantor sheriff and the grantee
    8
    Park Solutions. Accordingly, the trial court’s finding that the transaction was not an
    arm’s length sale was erroneous. “In light of the foregoing [errors], the [final] order
    of the trial court . . . is reversed.” CPF Investments, supra at 750.
    Judgment reversed. Ellington, P. J., concurs and Dillard, J., concurs in the
    judgment only.
    9
    A15A2136. PARK SOLUTIONS, LLC v. DEKALB COUNTY
    BOARD OF TAX ASSESSORS.
    DILLARD, Judge, concurring in judgment only.
    I concur in judgment only because I do not agree with all that is said in the
    majority opinion. As a result, the majority’s opinion decides only the issues presented
    in the case sub judice and may not be cited as binding precedent. See Court of
    Appeals Rule 33 (a).
    

Document Info

Docket Number: A15A2136

Citation Numbers: 336 Ga. App. 832, 783 S.E.2d 453

Filed Date: 4/4/2016

Precedential Status: Precedential

Modified Date: 1/12/2023