49 A.D. 385 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1900
There are twen.ty-two relators owning separate pieces of property. The complaint of each one is that his assessment is erroneous by reason of overvaluation, and because it was made at a higher proportionate valuation than the assessment of other real estate on the tax rolls of the city of New York and in the borough of Manhattan, and in the assessment district of that borough in which the separate parcel is situated. The petition for the writ contains a separate statement in respect to each parcel, showing the amount of the assessment upon it; the value of it; the amount at which it should
It is very evident that a determination of the questions raised by these writs would require an examination of the valuation of each of these separate pieces of" property, the assessment of which is sought to be reviewed. The value of each piece must be ascertained, and it must be compared with the valuation of the other property of the neighborhood and in the city at large; and the question whether each piece has been overvalued must be determined separately by separate comparisons. Whatever may be done with regard to one piece of property can have no effect upon the correctness of the assessment of another piece; so not only is there no necessary connection between them, but in the nature of things a determination with respect to the assessment on one piece can have no bearing upon the determination as to any other piece. So far, then, as the question of the valuation of each particular piece depends upon a comparison with other pieces of property, there must be a separate comparison for each piece.
We cannot see how the allegation that the assessed valuation of property in the borough of Manhattan has been increased seventeen per cent over the valuation of 1898, and that the assessed valuation in the borough of Brooklyn has been increased only seven and eight-tenths per cent, affords any basis for the correction of these indi
This writ is not given to the relator for the purpose of attacking the system of making assessments, except so far as the application of that system works in justice to him. The only question is whether the particular assessment has been made as required by the statute, and whether, when so made, it overvalues his property absolutely, or as compared with other similar property on the same roll. The general system that may be adopted is of no assistance in determining this case. Whenever a relator insists that his property has been overvalued, or that the assessment has been irregular, all that is necessary for the determination of the truth of that question is a comparison of the assessment and the valuation of his property with other property. It necessarily follows, therefore, that with respect to such a complaint as this, where the different properties whose assessments are attacked are not of the same nature, and necessarily not of the same value, there is no propriety in uniting several pieces of property in the same writ. As was well said by the learned trial justice, the permission given by section 250 of the Tax Law (Laws of 1896, chap. 908), that “ ‘ two or more persons assessed upon the same roll who are affected in the same manner by the alleged illegality, error or inequality, may unite in the same petition,’ * * * is intended to apply to a case wherein the adjudication upon the
As to the objection that the writ was not sued out in time, we have nothing to add to what was said in People ex rel. Bronx Gas Co. v. Barker (22 App. Div. 161).
The order must be affirmed, with costs.
Van Brunt, P. J., Barrett, O’Brien and Ingraham, JJ., concurred.
Order affirmed, with costs.