Bennett v. Board of Assessors of Whitman

• Citation: 237 N.E.2d 7,354 Mass. 239
• Parties: Albert W. BENNETT et al. v. BOARD OF ASSESSORS OF WHITMAN et al.
• Decision Date: 03 May 1968
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts

Page 7

237 N.E.2d 7

354 Mass. 239

Albert W. BENNETT et al. v. BOARD OF ASSESSORS OF WHITMAN et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Plymouth.

Argued April 2, 1968.

Decided May 3, 1968.

Harold J. Betzold, Jr., Whitman, Town Counsel, for defendants.

Robert J. Cotter, Rockland, for plaintiffs.

Before WILKINS, C.J., and WHITTEMORE, KIRK, SPIEGEL and REARDON, JJ.

WILKINS, Chief Justice.

Sixteen taxable inhabitants of the town of Whitman bring this bill under G.L. c. 40, § 53, against its board of assessors and its collector of taxes to enjoin the assessment, commitment, and collection of taxes other than on assessments based on the full and fair cash value of all taxable property in the town. The defendants' demurrer for want of equity was overruled. The case was tried before a judge of the Superior Court, who filed 'Findings, Rulings and Order for Decree.' He ruled that the assessment practices of the defendant board and the assessments of taxable property pursuant to such practices are in violation of G.L. c. 59, § 38, and of the Constitution of the Commonwealth, Part II, c. 1, § 1, art. 4; the Declaration of Rights, art. 10. He found that the same practices have remained in effect for years, and that the assessors do not intend to change those practices. From a final decree of injunction, the defendants appealed. The evidence is reported.

The judge stated, 'The assessors testified, and I so find, that they attempt to assess properties at 25% of full and fair cash value. In doing this they state that they are assessing 'at full and fair cash value for assessment purposes. '' On this finding alone the assessment practices are clearly invalid. The requirement of c. 59, § 38, is that the assessors 'make a fair cash valuation of all the estate, real and personal, subject to taxation.' As we said in Boston Gas Co. v. Assessors of Boston, 334 Mass. 549, 566, 137 N.E.2d 462, 473, 'This means fair market value, which is the price an owner willing but not under compulsion to sell ought to receive from one willing but not under compulsion to buy. It means the highest price that a normal purchaser not under peculiar compulsion will pay at the time, and cannot exceed the sum which the owner after reasonable effort could obtain for his property.'

It is a wholly illegal practice to assess land at less than 100% of full fair cash value. Shoppers' World, Inc. v. Board of Assessors of Framingham, 348 Mass. 366, 371, 203 N.E.2d 811. See Bettigole v. Assessors of Springfield, 343 Mass. 223, 231--232, 178 N.E.2d 10; Leto v. Board of Assessors of Wilmington, 348 Mass. 144, 146--147, 202 N.E.2d 922. Assessments at 25% of full and fair cash value are not validated by describing them as 'at full and fair cash value for assessment purposes.'

The defendants have made no cogent pertinent defence as to this violation, but have concentrated their arguments upon claiming that they had not transgressed in other respects which are described as improper in the cases cited supra. It is immaterial that other types of violation are lacking as contended by the defendants in arguing that the demurrer should have been sustained because the bill does not sufficiently allege facts showing a deliberate and substantial violation of the requirement that property tax valuations be proportional; or as contended on the merits, that there is no finding that there is a scheme of intentional discrimination or disproportionate assessment.

Should it be argued that no unfairness results from the assessors' methods, we make two answers. First, it is nonetheless a violation of the statute. Second, the argument does not recognize the effect of exemptions granted on one ninth of the taxable real estate in the town. The judge found that there are about 4,500 separate parcels subject to assessment, of which about 500 are exempt under G.L. c. 59, § 5, clauses Seventeenth (widows)--50, Twenty-second (veterans)--200, and Forty-first (aged persons)--250.

Even proportionate assessment at less than 100% of full and fair cash value increases the tax impact of exemptions to the detriment of all other taxpayers. ¹ Accordingly, it is obvious that the defendant board's methods of assessment place an unreasonable burden on all other...