PER CURIAM.
The three cases at issue here have been consolidated for the purpose of appellate review. In Docket No. 295732, petitioner MJC/Lotus Group (MJC), appeals as of right the Tax Tribunal's order denying MJC's motions for immediate consideration and summary disposition and granting summary disposition in favor of respondent Brownstown Township (Brownstown) on the ground that the tribunal lacked jurisdiction to review the 2005 taxable values of MJC's properties. In Docket No. 296499, petitioner CW Development L.L.C./Meadow Walk (CW) appeals as of right the tribunal's opinion and judgment affirming, in favor of respondent Grand Blanc Township (Grand Blanc), the 2004 taxable values of CW's properties for the tax years at issue on the ground that the tribunal lacked jurisdiction to review them. In Docket No. 301043, respondent Northville Township (Northville) appeals as of right the tribunal's opinion and judgment adjusting the taxable values of properties owned by petitioners Toll Northville Limited Partnership (Toll) and Biltmore Wineman, L.L.C. (Biltmore) for the tax years at issue. We hold that the tribunal lacks jurisdiction to indirectly review the accuracy of a property's taxable value in a year not under appeal notwithstanding that such value is used as a starting point to calculate the property's taxable value in a year properly under appeal. Accordingly, we affirm the judgments reached in Docket Nos. 295732 and 296499, but reverse the judgment reached in Docket No. 301043 and remand the case to the tribunal for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
The jurisdiction of the Tax Tribunal is set by statute, thereby raising a
In each of the three consolidated cases, the petitioning party challenges as unconstitutional the taxable values of the subject properties in the year immediately preceding the first tax year under appeal. In Docket No. 295732, MJC challenges the subject properties' 2005 taxable values in its petition filed in tax year 2006, amended to include subsequent years. In Docket No. 296499, CW challenges the subject properties' 2004 taxable values in its petition filed in tax year 2005, amended to include subsequent years. In Docket No. 301043, Toll and Biltmore challenge the subject properties' 2000 taxable values in its petition filed in tax year 2001, amended to include subsequent years.
Docket No. 301043 provided the background for the issue at hand. The Tax Tribunal held the case in abeyance while Toll and Biltmore pursued a declaratory judgment action in the Wayne Circuit Court challenging the constitutionality of MCL 211.34d(1)(b)(viii). The case reached the Michigan Supreme Court, which held as follows:
Although the invalidity of MCL 211.34d(1)(b)(viii) is not contested on appeal, there remain preliminary issues that must be addressed to decide the form of redress available to the parties in the instant actions.
The first question is whether the tribunal has subject matter jurisdiction to review the accuracy (here, the constitutional legitimacy) of the properties' taxable values in years not directly under appeal. The challenge is an indirect one by virtue of the mathematical formula that assessors use to compute a property's taxable value
Subject matter jurisdiction, which refers to the deciding body's authority to try a case of the kind or character pending before it, irrespective of the particular facts of the case, cannot be waived. Travelers Ins. Co. v. Detroit Edison Co., 465 Mich. 185, 204, 631 N.W.2d 733 (2001). Concerns regarding subject matter jurisdiction can be raised at any time, by any party, or sua sponte by the tribunal. Electronic Data Sys. Corp. v. Flint Twp., 253 Mich.App. 538, 544, 656 N.W.2d 215 (2002). Indeed, when the tribunal finds that it lacks subject matter jurisdiction, it is obliged to dismiss the case and may proceed no further except to effectuate such dismissal. Id. at 544, 656 N.W.2d 215.
MCL 205.735(3) provides, in relevant part, that the tribunal's jurisdiction "is invoked by a party in interest, as petitioner, filing a written petition on or before June 30 of the tax year involved." Although the petitions in the instant cases are not themselves untimely, petitioners are attempting to use them to challenge the subject properties' taxable values from tax years not under appeal.
In Leahy v. Orion Twp., 269 Mich.App. 527, 711 N.W.2d 438 (2006), we addressed a similar situation in which a petition filed in 2003 challenged the subject property's 2003 assessed value on the ground that it had been incorrectly calculated in light of an error in the property's 2002 assessment. Id. at 528-529, 711 N.W.2d 438. In challenging the 2002 assessment in his 2003 petition, the petitioner "argued that the tax code requires property taxes to be based on the prior year's assessed value, so that the prior year's value must be the correct value." Id. at 529, 711 N.W.2d 438. In rejecting the petitioner's argument, we held:
We concluded that "the fixed assessment value must be used where, as here, a statutory assessment formula calls for the use of a now-unchallengeable assessed value." Id. at 531, 711 N.W.2d 438. In addition, we noted that the tribunal correctly dismissed the claim for lack of jurisdiction, explaining that the petitioner only appealed his 2003 assessment and any attempt to challenge prior years' assessments would
Accordingly, the law prohibits the tribunal from revisiting the accuracy of assessments and other evaluations that have become "unchallengeable," whether because a final judgment has been entered regarding the values (collateral estoppel), or the window for filing a petition to challenge those values has lapsed (lack of jurisdiction). This long-held principle can be traced back to the Supreme Court's decision in Auditor General v. Smith, 351 Mich. 162, 168, 88 N.W.2d 429 (1958), in which it stated, "Failure to act to correct assessments and evaluations by the board of review in the manner as provided by statute precludes later attack upon the assessment."
Further, in Toll Northville, Ltd. v. Northville Twp., 272 Mich.App. 352, 360, 726 N.W.2d 57 (2006) (Toll Northville I), aff'd in part and vacated in part on other grounds Toll Northville II, 480 Mich. 6, 743 N.W.2d 902, we previously acknowledged the implications of Leahy for the ultimate resolution of Docket No. 301043, which, at the time, was held in abeyance in the tribunal. We held that "[w]hile we acknowledge that ... Leahy limit[s] the Tax Tribunal's authority to decide the accuracy and methodology of assessments to the tax years timely appealed, we do not agree that those decisions limit our ability to resolve the constitutional issue at hand." Id.
Consequently, we disagree with petitioners that nothing forbids the tribunal from hearing a constitutional argument regarding an invalid action occurring in the preceding year used to calculate the tax assessment for the current year. MCL 205.735(3), Leahy, Smith, and the foreshadowing in Toll Northville I precisely forbid the tribunal from taking such action.
MJC argues that its case is distinguishable in that it involves freshly split parcels in the first year under appeal. We acknowledge that the original parent parcel, which MJC purchased in 2001, was split into the child parcels that are the subject of this appeal in 2006, the first year under appeal, and that, therefore, there are no taxable values corresponding to the child parcels in 2005, the year in which public-service improvements were included in the parent parcel's taxable value. What MJC fails to explain, however, is why MJC could not have challenged the public-service additions included in the taxable value of the parent parcel in 2005. Because MJC has not argued that anything prevented it from filing a petition in 2005, the distinction makes no difference.
We agree with petitioners that unconstitutional statutes are void ab initio. Nevertheless, a determination that a related statute is unconstitutional does not nullify the limitation on the tribunal's jurisdictional authority, under which it may only review the accuracy of taxable values in years properly under appeal. Contrary to petitioners' suggestion, the tribunal's lack of jurisdiction does not nullify the previous litigation involving Toll. That litigation was a declaratory judgment action to determine the constitutionality of MCL 211.34d(1)(b)(viii), not an appeal from a tribunal decision. Toll Northville I, 272 Mich.App. at 361, 726 N.W.2d 57. In that litigation, Northville argued that we were without jurisdiction to decide whether MCL 211.34d(1)(b)(viii) was unconstitutional because "the Tax Tribunal would have no authority to change the 2001 and 2002 tax assessments on the basis of additions that occurred in tax year 2000." Id. at 360, 726 N.W.2d 57. We noted that "the Tax Tribunal has not yet issued a ruling so as to invoke our review of its jurisdiction. The determination whether jurisdiction exists to hear the developers' challenge to the actual tax assessment is
We also reject the argument that MCL 211.27a, which sets forth the mathematical formula used to determine a property's taxable value, somehow confers jurisdiction on the tribunal to review the prior year's taxable value. MCL 211.27a(2) provides, in pertinent part:
Merely using a property's taxable value in the immediately preceding year to perform a calculation, as MCL 211.27a instructs, is quite different than reviewing the accuracy, constitutional or otherwise, of such taxable value. We reached a similar conclusion in a decision related to uncapping issues. In Mich Props., LLC v. Meridian Twp., 292 Mich.App. 147, 149-150, 154, 808 N.W.2d 506 (2011), this Court concluded that the tribunal erred when it permitted property to be uncapped for the 2007 and 2008 tax years when the transfer had occurred in 2004. We conclude that the prohibition must cut both ways. If a taxing authority may not reach back into the past to "correct" a property value by uncapping when it failed to uncap at the time the transfer occurred, property owners must likewise be denied the ability to reach back into the past and "correct" values when they failed to appeal the taxable value during the designated statutory period. Thus, although MCL 211.27a calls for use of the immediately preceding year's taxable value, it does not extend the jurisdiction of the Tax Tribunal to permit a second bite at the apple to contest the taxable value in tax years that were not timely appealed.
Petitioners MJC, Toll, and Biltmore argue that, even assuming that the tribunal lacked jurisdiction to recalculate
"[L]osses" are defined, in pertinent part, as "[p]roperty that has been destroyed or removed." MCL 211.34d(1)(h)(i). Under MCL 211.27a(2)(a), the taxable value of a parcel of property equals "[t]he property's taxable value in the immediately preceding year minus any losses, multiplied by the lesser of 1.05 or the inflation rate, plus all additions." Here, no loss occurred because the public-service improvements were neither removed nor destroyed.
Petitioners argue that the value of the public-service improvements was "destroyed or removed" when the larger parcels were divided into the smaller subject parcels, resulting in a separation of the public-service improvements from the properties. This position is contrary to MCL 211.34d(1)(i)(i), which provides that the term, "losses," does not include decreased value attributable to splits of property. And petitioners have cited no caselaw in which the value of public service improvements, when such improvements are separated from property as a result of a split, have been considered a "loss" under MCL 211.34d(1)(h)(i) that must be deducted from a property's taxable value under MCL 211.27a(2)(a).
In any event, the Toll Northville II decision forecloses petitioners' argument. Under Toll Northville II, the value of public-service improvements may not be included in a property's value as an "addition." Including such value is unconstitutional. In a timely filed petition, if a property's taxable value is found to include the value of public-service improvements, the tribunal must reduce the property's taxable value under Toll Northville II. If we were to accept petitioners' position, the tribunal would be required to reduce the property's taxable value again, and by the same amount, because the value of public-service improvements constitutes, not only an unconstitutional "addition," but also a "loss." Accordingly, we hold that there was no "loss" within the meaning of the statute in these cases. Rather, in years not properly under appeal, the subject properties' taxable values, which are now finalized, include unconstitutional additions for public-service improvements. The tribunal, however, lacks jurisdiction to reach back into years not under appeal to correct those constitutional errors.
In addition to its jurisdictional argument, Northville argues that the tribunal, by reducing the subject properties' taxable values by the amount of public-service additions, violated the doctrines of collateral estoppel, res judicata, and the law of the case. We decline to address these arguments because we find the tribunal's lack of jurisdiction a sufficient ground to reverse the tribunal's decision adjusting the subject properties' taxable values in a year not under appeal.
Finally, Northville argues that the tribunal clearly erred by calculating the properties' taxable values inconsistently with the parties' stipulations. We conclude that, because the tribunal lacked jurisdiction, it should not have engaged in any recalculation and we reverse any adjustment in taxable values that occurred. Therefore, we need not determine whether the tribunal's
Because the taxable values challenged in the instant actions are beyond the tribunal's jurisdiction to revisit, the only remaining question is whether the assessor properly applied the mathematical formula used to determine the subject properties' taxable values in the years properly under appeal. With the exception of the "loss" argument, which we reject, the parties do not dispute that the assessor properly applied the statutory inflationary factor to the subject properties' taxable values from the immediately preceding year to arrive at the subject properties' taxable values in the years properly under appeal.
In Docket No. 295732, the tribunal properly found that it lacked jurisdiction to review the subject properties' 2005 taxable values. It further found that the assessor correctly calculated the subject properties' 2006 taxable values using the allegedly erroneous 2005 taxable values, and that the subject properties' 2007 and 2008 taxable values were also correctly calculated using the previous years' taxable values. Accordingly, it granted Brownstown's motion for summary disposition and dismissed the case. The tribunal did not err.
In Docket No. 296499, the tribunal properly found that it lacked jurisdiction to review the subject properties' 2004 taxable values. It further found that CW failed to show that the assessor misapplied the statutory formula to arrive at the taxable values in tax years 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. Accordingly, it affirmed the properties' taxable values for the tax years at issue and ordered the case closed. The tribunal did not err.
In Docket No. 301043, the tribunal properly found that it lacked jurisdiction to review the subject properties' taxable values in a year not under appeal. However, the tribunal then stated:
By reducing the properties' taxable values in a year not under appeal, the tribunal violated the jurisdictional statute. In this regard, the tribunal misapplied the law and adopted a wrong principle.
Accordingly, we affirm the orders in Docket Nos. 295732 and 296499. In Docket No. 301043, we reverse the order adjusting the subject properties' taxable values and remand the case back to the tribunal with instructions that it affirm the subject properties' taxable values for the tax years at issue because it lacks jurisdiction to review them. We do not retain jurisdiction.
MARKEY, P.J., and FITZGERALD and SHAPIRO, JJ., concurred.