135 Minn. 205 | Minn. | 1916
Certiorari to review the order and decision of the State Tax Commission classifying certain real property for the purpose of taxation.
The facts are short and as follows: Belator owns what formerly was a part of Jackson, Daniels & Whitney’s'platted addition to the city of Minneapolis, namely, a part of lot 6, and all of lots 7 and 8 in block 18 of that plat. The addition was duly laid out, and the plat filed in the office of the register of deeds of Hennepin county, in December, 1856; but all that part thereof which included this and some adjoining lots was vacated by decree of the court in September, 1867; and the land in question has not since then been included within that or any other plat, though it has been conveyed from time to time by the description given in and according to the old plat. The property is situated in the residential district of Minneapolis, is entirely surrounded by platted property, and is occupied by large apartment buildings.
By chapter 483, p. 710, Laws 1913, the legislature divided property, real and personal, for the purposes of taxation into four classes, 3 and 4 of which only are pertinent to the question here presented. Live stock, agricultural products, stocks and merchandise, manufacturers’ material, all tools and machinery, “and all unplatted real estate, except as provided by class one,” are placed in class 3, with a direction that each item be valued and assessed at 33 1-3 per cent of its true and full value. Class 4 is composed of all property not specified in either of the other classes, and includes, among other items of property, all platted real estate, and the assessment thereof is required to be at 40 per cent of the true value.
The property in question was assessed under the fourth class, as platted property, and at 40 per cent of its true value. On the claim that the property properly belonged to the third class an application for a reduction of the assessment was made to the county board and by that body favorably recommended to the state tax commission where it was heard and denied.
On its face and by its literal reading the statute classifies real property for the purposes of taxation into platted and unplatted land, without regard to the uses or purposes to which the same may be devoted. And if construed strictly, the contention of relator that the land in question is
The order of the tax commission under review will therefore be in all things sustained.