Davison v. Board of Review of Buchanan Tp.
| Decision Date | 14 April 1930 |
| Docket Number | 38271 |
| Citation | 230 N.W. 304,209 Iowa 1332 |
| Parties | ALLEN DAVISON, Appellee, v. BOARD OF REVIEW OF BUCHANAN TOWNSHIP, PAGE COUNTY, et al., Appellants (and five other cases) |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Appeal from Page District Court.--J. S. DEWELL, Judge.
The six cases above entitled were tried in the court below upon the same evidence, and the appeals are submitted here upon one record. In the district court these were appeals by the respective plaintiffs from the orders of the township board of review, fixing the assessments upon their lands respectively. The appeals were heard de novo in the district court, and it fixed an assessment upon each tract materially less than the assessment fixed by the board of review. From these orders by the district court the board of review has appealed.
Affirmed.
Stipe Davidson & Davidson and Paul L. Millhone, for appellants.
Stephens & Thornell, for appellees.
OPINION
The lands involved in the controversy are located in Buchanan Township, Page County, and on the westerly side of such township. Thirty-one tracts are involved, and an acreage somewhat in excess of 1,700 acres. The appeals arose out of an effort by the board of review to readjust the assessable value of lands in their township. It appears that the assessor had assessed all the lands of the township substantially on the basis of former assessments. The members of the board of review believed that there should be a readjustment. This belief was predicated upon the alleged fact that the farm lands on the westerly side of the township had increased in value in recent years to a greater extent than had the lands in other parts of the township. The Nodaway River runs across the township from north to south, substantially parallel with the west line of the township, and one mile distant therefrom. It is said that these lands were largely wet and swampy in former times, and subject to overflow; that in later years they had been improved by drainage; that the Nodaway River had been straightened in its course, so that it offered better facilities for drainage and had become less subject to floods. The lands in that part of the township are described as first and second bottom lands. This area of bottom lands comprises approximately the west one third of the township. East of this area and throughout this township toward the east the lands are higher and rolling, and the soil is said to be thinner and less productive, and the improvements are scant and of modest values. It was upon these hypotheses that the board of review acted, upon its own initiative, to make the readjustment. Pursuant thereto, they raised materially the assessments on the 31 tracts under consideration here, and reduced the assessment on 42 tracts in the easterly part of the township. The membership of the board of review all resided in the easterly part of the township. The Nodaway lands, therefore, had no advocate, and the landowners challenged the justice of the movement. There is much variation and difference of opinion and of points of view indicated in the evidence. Each party used six witnesses on the question of valuation, though they were not all used upon every tract. The evidence was directed, in the first instance, to the actual value of the 31 tracts under consideration. Thereafter, the plaintiffs put in evidence concerning the valuation and assessment of more than 80 other tracts, and the defendant put in evidence the valuation and assessment of more than 180 other tracts. These "other" tracts are referred to in the record as "comparison tracts."
The record is very voluminous, and is almost indigestible. Respective counsel, however, have co-operated as much as possible to lay before us the material features of the record in such a way as to relieve us from the necessity of discussing the details of the evidence. With commendable ingenuity, counsel on each side have incorporated into their respective arguments charts of their own devising, whereby the valuations put by each witness upon each tract under consideration have been tabulated and charted. These charts are all calculated to aid us, and to serve as a concise abstract of all the evidence on the question of valuation. These charts disclose the valuation put upon each tract by the assessor, by the board of review, by each witness who testified thereto, and by the district court in its final decree. The decree of the district court reduced the increases made by the board of review, and fixed an assessment upon each tract which approximated that originally fixed by the assessor. The parties have confined their arguments to the question of the proper valuation of the tracts: that is, whether the assessments made by the board of review were fair and equitable, within the meaning of the law; and if not, whether the assessments made by the district court were fair and equitable. No questions of law are argued, except such as inhere in this question of merit. The appellants stress the proposition that the burden was upon the plaintiffs in the district court to show clearly that the assessments made by the board of review were unjust, and that the same burden rests upon them in this court, in view of the de novo character of the hearing here. Appellants urge also that all the witnesses for the plaintiffs have predicated their opinions of value upon a wrong basis, and upon a basis which violates Section 7109 of the Code, 1924; that, therefore, such evidence should all be deemed ineffective, as against the assessments fixed by the board of review.
The assessments under consideration were those for the year 1925. The appeals from the board of review were taken in May in that year, the trial was had in the fall of that year, and the final decree was entered in the early part of the year 1926. The case was submitted to us in March, 1930. Where it has been hibernating, and why, throughout the intervening years, is not made apparent in the record.
The ultimate question presented for our consideration is naturally divisible into two parts: (1) Did the board of review err in the fixing of these assessments? (2) If yea, did the district court err in the extent of the relief which it awarded to the plaintiffs?
I. It is important that we first get the point of view of the reviewing board and its line of approach to the problem of these assessments. As already indicated, the various increases of these assessments were all a part of the single scheme of readjustment of assessed values, and the record of the board shows that they were all adopted by one resolution, after notice was given and hearing had. At the same time, reductions were made in the assessments of 42 tracts located in other parts of the township. The dispute has, to some extent, taken the color of a sectional controversy. Though the findings of the board were averse to the west side of the township, and though the members thereof resided in the easterly side, there is nothing in the record to reflect upon the honesty and good faith of the members so acting. Nor were they benefited or interested in the changes made, in any other respect than all the taxpayers are indirectly interested in such changes. Members of the board must live somewhere in the township, and their duties must be exercised everywhere therein. Appellants lay much stress upon Section 7109 of the Code, 1924, and on the alleged fact that its provisions were ignored by the plaintiffs in their testimony. We therefore set it forth herein, for later reference. It is as follows:
Vardaman, a member of the board of review, and a candid witness, testified to those elements of value which were considered by the board in increasing and making the assessments in controversy. His testimony in that regard was as follows:
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