137 N.Y.S. 365 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1912
This is an appeal from an order of the Special Term in Rock-land county that confirmed the report of a referee in a certiorari proceeding to review the assessment of the relator’s property in the town of Clarkstown, Rockland county, for the year 1909. The real property in question consisted of nearly seven miles of railroad bed and track on a right of way, aggregating ninety-eight acres of land, together with the various railroad structures of the relator thereon, including bridges, tunnels, embankments and other constructions incidental to the use of the land for steam railroad purposes. In 1909, the real property in question was assessed originally at the sum of $350,000, made up of items as follows: “ 98 acres [of land], $4,900. Tunnels, tracks, superstructure, roadbed, masonry and buildings, $345,100.” The relator appeared before the assessors and objectéd to the assessment so made, on the ground that it was excessive in amount, and unequal in proportion to the rate of assessed valuation made generally upon other real estate in the town. The assessors thereafter reduced the assessed valuation to the sum of $300,000. The relator thereupon obtained a writ of certiorari to review said final assessment, on the same grounds as it had urged before the assessors. A referee was appointed who took the testimony offered by the respective parties, and who reported to the effect that the actual value of the real property of the relator in the town in question, at the time of the assessment, was the sum of $300,000. He recommended a reduction of the assessment in question to the sum of $205,000, on the ground that the real property in the town was assessed generally, in the year 1909, at the proportion of but
The general rule for the assessment of the real estate of a railroad corporation within the boundaries of a town where the railroad itself, as in this case, traverses several towns, is that the reasonable cost of reproducing the railroad structures, added to the value of the roadbed as land, is presumptively the value of the railroad considered as real property for the purposes of assessment for taxation. (People ex rel. Delaware, L. & W. R. R. Co. v. Clapp, 152 N. Y. 490.) This rule is presumptive rather than conclusive, for there may be instances where the structures existing upon the land are disproportionate to the proper use of the land for railroad purposes, and thus do not, to the extent of the cost of reproduction, add to the value of the railroad system considered as real estate. There was, however, no proof before the referee in this case disclosing such condition. The respondent urges, however, that the referee was justified in disregarding as elements of value for assessment purposes the cost of reproduction of either or both the tunnel and the grading. It is not suggested that either the tunnel through the mountain or the grading of the roadbed were unnecessary to a proper use by the relator of its right of way for steam railroad purposes, and. it is difficult to see how such a suggestion could be made justifiably. Some of the witnesses who testified before the referee expressed the opinion that neither the tunnel nor the grading added anything to the value of the land which formed the roadbed, but it is apparent that in giving such opinion they had in mind the roadbed considered simply as land, disassociated from its actual use for railroad purposes. This, however, is not the test, for the value of the property in question was to be assessed with relation to its use for' railroad purposes. It seems plain enough that the land forming the roadbed of the tunnel would have been of no or little use for railroad purposes unless the tunnel was constructed, in which event the existence of the tunnel unquestionably added to the value of such land. It was likewise as to the grading in question, for without such grading it is plain the land could not have been used for the purposes for which
The order of the Special Term should be reversed and the report of the referee vacated, and a new hearing ordered before a new referee to be appointed at Special Term, with costs.
Hirschberg, Thomas, Woodward and Rich, JJ., concurred.
Order of the Special Term reversed, report of referee vacated, and a new hearing ordered before a new referee to be appointed at Special Term, with costs of this appeal.'