Opinion
26131.
SUBMITTED OCTOBER 13, 1970.
DECIDED NOVEMBER 5, 1970.
Injunction. Lowndes Superior Court. Before Judge Calhoun.
Tillman, Brice, McTier Coleman, B. Lamar Tillman, for appellant.
H. Arthur McLane, for appellee.
The trial court did not err in denying the defendant's motion for summary judgment.
SUBMITTED OCTOBER 13, 1970 — DECIDED NOVEMBER 5, 1970.
Prior to her death in 1969, Mrs. Jack Staten returned property for taxation in Lowndes County, Ga. After her death the board of tax assessors placed a higher valuation thereon and after her executor demanded arbitration the arbitrators, duly appointed held a hearing and placed a valuation on such property higher than the original return but lower than the valuation made by the board of assessors. An appeal from the decision of the arbitrators was made by the board of tax assessors but was later voluntarily dismissed.
Thereafter, other taxpayers, in separate litigation, succeeded in having the tax assessments made for the year 1969 declared "unconstitutional and void because the personal property valuations were not based on fair market value, and the valuations as between owners of real property and owners of personal property only were not fairly and justly equalized." Register v. Langdale, 226 Ga. 82 (4) ( 172 S.E.2d 620). Following such decision the board of tax assessors again assessed property for ad valorem tax purposes for the year 1969 and placed its original assessment on the Staten property. The executor again demanded arbitration and named one arbitrator. The tax assessors then filed the present action in which they sought to enjoin the arbitration proceedings. The executor filed a counterclaim in which he sought to enjoin any reassessment for the year 1969 and bind the tax assessors for such year to the figure set by the original arbitration.
The parties filed a stipulation incorporating the above facts and the executor then moved for a summary judgment. The trial court denied the motion for summary judgment and after certification of such judgment for immediate review the present appeal was filed.
The trial court did not err in denying the taxpayer's motion for summary judgment. The decision of this court in Register v. Langdale, 226 Ga. 82, supra, held that the original tax assessments were void but such decision related only to an interlocutory injunction and was not a final disposition of the case. Whether the evidence was the same on a final hearing, or whether a final hearing was in fact held, is not shown by the record in the case sub judice. Nor does the record disclose if all property was re-evaluated after such decision, or whether personal property only was properly assessed and real property reassessed at the same value previously assessed except those parcels where a lower value had been fixed by arbitration. Nor does the record in this case disclose if the Staten property consisted solely of real or personal property or a combination of both. Each of the above factors could affect the final result to be reached in the present case.
Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur.