This аppeal presents another chapter in the dispute over the revaluation for taxation purposes of real proрerty in Waterbury as contained in the grand list of October 1, 1979. In
Chamber of Commerce of Greater Waterbury, Inc.
v.
Murphy,
The plaintiff moved for a summary judgment on the basis of testimony by the defendant lorio at a deposition that he had not made individual assessments of the properties affected by the 28 percent increase. He had testified that from his analysis of the 300 commerciаl and industrial properties which he and his staff examined individually he concluded that the values placed on commercial and industrial reаl estate by his predecessor were at least 28 percent lower than actual market value. Because of the short time available to complete the assessment list, this percentage was used to adjust the valuations for the 2500 commercial and industrial proрerties remaining which had not been studied individually. The trial court concluded that the material facts were not disputed and granted summary judgment for thе plaintiff, enjoining the defendant city from levying any tax based upon the 28 percent increase upon any member of the plaintiff class. The defendants have appealed claiming (1) that there are disputed issues which make summary judgment inappropriate and (2) that the use оf the fixed percentage by the assessor was not unreasonable under the circumstances. We affirm the decision of the trial court.
The disposition of a case by summary judgment is erroneous unless there exists “no genuine issue
*336
as to any material fact.” Practice Book § 384. The dеfendants maintain that there was snch an issue because they are prepared to prove that even after the application of the fixed percentage increase each of the affected properties has been valued at a figure not еxceeding its fair market value. We have recognized, however, that valuation of property in excess of fair market value is not the only ground upon which a taxpayer may be entitled to relief.
White
v.
Portland,
Thе application of a fixed percentage factor to increase assessments without making any allowance for individual differences in properties has been widely condemned.
Bret Harte Inn, Inc.
v.
City & County of San Francisco,
The 28 percent increase in the valuations of the 2500 commercial and industrial properties whiсh lorio did not examine individually was a projection from the conclusion he reached from his analysis of 300 such properties upon an individual basis. His conclusion of a minimum 28 percent undervaluation of those properties could not fairly be applied to all other businеss properties in Waterbury without some showing that the undervaluation had occurred for reasons affecting all business properties alikе. We cannot assume that the 300 properties studied by the assessor are sufficiently similar in character or location to allow a rеasonable inference that the remaining 2500 properties *338 have been uniformly undervalued by 28 percent. In fact, the testimony of lorio indiсated that he found the 28 percent to represent the low side of a range of 28 to 45 percent undervaluation, where most of the рroperties analyzed fell as indicated by comparative sales. He conceded that he had found in his study undervaluations outside this range, greater than 45 percent for some properties and lower than 28 percent for others. Under this testimony it is clear that the apрlication of the 28 percent factor would not reflect the value of a particular property based upon its individual charаcteristics as the statutes require. Even for properties falling within the normal range of undervaluation, there would be a substantial dispropоrtion in the tax burden imposed on those at the lower part of the range, which presumably would carry their full share by application of thе 28 percent factor, and those at the higher part of the range which would not. We conclude that the application of the fixеd percentage factor by the assessor to increase the assessments on the properties of the plaintiffs cannot reasonably be found to fulfill his statutory duty to determine the “true and actual valuation” of each individual property. General Statutes § 12-64.
There is no error.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
