150 A. 308 | Conn. | 1930
This proceeding was brought to compel the board of relief of the town of Branford to include in the assessment list of the town certain real estate owned by the First Ecclesiastical Society of Branford. It has already been three times before this court, and our opinions will be found reported in
The respondents thereupon filed a return in several counts. In the third it was alleged that during the month of February, 1925, the question of the inclusion of the property in the assessment list of the town was before the board of relief upon an appeal from the assessors of the town and that the board heard the appellant and denied the appeal, deciding that the property was not assessable against the society but that the improvements placed upon the land by its lessees were taxable against them and had been assessed upon the same basis of valuation as other like property in the town. The plaintiff demurred to all the counts of the return and upon the appeal from the action of the trial court in sustaining the demurrer we found error as to the third count. We said that, while the decision of the board was erroneous, "a conclusion that the property was exempt from taxation is not one which, in view of the applicable statutory provisions and previous decisions of this court, is free from difficulty, and the board, composed of laymen, might fairly and honestly reach it. That being so, the matter would not be one where mandamus might properly issue." (
The plaintiff filed a reply to the third count of the return. The terms of this pleading can hardly be regarded as a compliance with the rule requiring admissions and denials to be direct, precise and specific. Practice Book, p. 291, § 203. It was, however, affirmatively alleged in it that on or about February 16th the plaintiff requested the board to make a supplemental list of the property of the Ecclesiastical Society, including that involved in the controversy, which the board refused to do. The case was then presented to the court upon an agreed statement of facts and these facts the trial court has incorporated in its finding. From them it appears that an appeal was taken to the board of relief from the action of the assessors of the town in omitting the property from the tax list of the society, and it is stated that the board after consideration and acting in good faith and upon advice of counsel decided that the property was exempt from taxation against the First Ecclesiastical Society, but that the improvements erected thereon were taxable against the sublessees in possession, and that it denied the appeal. Upon the basis of these facts the trial court found the third count of the return proven and gave judgment for the respondents.
The plaintiff stresses the fact that the present proceeding is one brought to compel the board to add omitted property to the list under Chapter 207 of the Public Acts of 1923, rather than one addressed to the performance of its functions as a tribunal to which *431
appeals are taken from action by the assessors of the town. In each of the two opinions to which we have referred this was pointed out and what was said in that reported in
The plaintiff assigns as one ground of the appeal the portion of the judgment awarding to the respondents such costs as may be legally taxable. The appeal does not attack the form of the judgment, which is clearly defective, in that it is not a direct adjudication upon the allowance of costs, but contends that no costs are taxable to the respondents in this proceeding. At common law no costs were allowed upon writs of mandamus.State ex rel. Elliott v. Lake Torpedo Boat Co.,
There is no error.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.