In re Tax Assessment Against Purple Turtle, LLC v. Gooden, 223 W. Va. 755

Summary

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia reviewed property tax assessments imposed on lots in the Broomgrass subdivision for the 2006 and 2007 tax years. The court held that the taxpayers failed to perfect their circuit-court appeals because they did not timely file the record of the Board of Equalization and Review proceedings, a mandatory jurisdictional requirement. The court reversed the circuit court and remanded for reinstatement of the assessments made by the assessor.

Holdings

1. The statutory requirements governing appeals from a county commission's property-tax assessment, including filing the petition within thirty days and accompanying it with the original administrative record or filing that record within the statutory period, are mandatory. When the record is not timely filed, the appeal is not properly perfected and must be refused.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the taxpayers' appeals from the property-tax assessments were properly perfected when the petitions were not accompanied by, and the administrative records were not filed in the circuit court within, the statutory thirty-day period.
2. Whether the circuit court properly granted summary judgment to the taxpayers and reduced the assessments.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded