197 A.D. 437 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1921
This is a certiorari proceeding instituted to review assessments for the purposes of taxation for the year 1918 on parcels of improved and unimproved real property situated in the borough of Manhattan consisting of fifteen separately
Justification is sought for these valuations in the sales of the Bennett plot to the south. But the Bennett property was very differently situated. It was within a few minutes’ walk of the One Hundred and Ninety-first street station of the subway, and directly along the line of Broadway, with cross
The Court of Appeals has recently had occasion to consider the argument whether a tract of land should be valued as a whole or “ upon the conjectured outcome of a proposed venture in subdividing the property and offering it for sale in lots. The true rule applicable to property situated like that of the relator was correctly stated by Mr. Justice Cullen in Matter of Daly v. Smith (18 App. Div. 194, 197) where he said: 1 It is doubtless true, and settled by authority, that the landowner is not limited in compensation to the use which he makes of his property, but is entitled to receive its greatest value for any purpose.. But still it is the market value of the property that is the measure of the compensation. When, therefore, it is sought to show that a tract of land has a use for a particular purpose, it must also be shown that it is marketable for that purpose, or has an intrinsic value. * * ' * Nearly any tract of land or any farm can be cut up into lots or villa sites. The question is not whether it can be so subdivided, but whether purchasers for the lots can be found, and also how speedily found. For if only small parts can be sold at intervals, and a number of years must elapse before the whole property can be disposed of, it is apparent that it would be unfair to take as a present value of the property a sum only to be realized after a long lapse of .time.’ The propriety of pursuing the course adopted by the assessors in the present case, therefore, depended upon the question whether the relator’s property was presently marketable if subdivided according to their assumption.” (People ex rel. Strong v. Hart, 216 N. Y. 513, 517.)
Contrasted with these speculative and fanciful valuations of the city’s experts we have evidence of appraisals made for
The order is, therefore, reversed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements to appellant, and the assessment fixed as herein indicated, with costs to the relator.
Clarke, P. J., Laughlin, Smith and Merrell, JJ., concur.
Order reversed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements, and assessment fixed as indicated in opinion, with costs to relator. Settle order on notice.