Navajo County v. Peabody Coal Company

OPINION

OGG, Presiding Judge.

Navajo County issued a property tax assessment against Peabody Coal Company for its mining operations on the Navajo and Hope Reservations in Navajo County, Arizona. Peabody paid the tax under protest and filed a complaint in the Superior Court of Navajo County to recover the monies paid. Peabody moved for summary judgment alleging that no statutory authority existed for the assessment and that since it was only a lessee of the land the assessment was an unconstitutional attempt to tax the lands or minerals of Indian owned property." The trial court granted the…