French v. Town of Lyme

• Decision Date: 01 April 1913
• Citation: 77 N.H. 63,86 A. 823
• Parties: FRENCH v. TOWN OF LYME.
• Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court

86 A. 823

77 N.H. 63

FRENCH

v. TOWN OF LYME.

Supreme Court of New Hampshire. Grafton.

April 1, 1913.

Exceptions from Superior Court, Grafton County; Mitchel, Judge.

On petition by Nahum W. French against the Town of Lyme for an abatement of taxes. Judgment against plaintiff, and he excepts. Exceptions overruled.

The plaintiff is a resident of Haverhill, and is the owner of real estate in the defendant town, which is taxed to him as nonresident. The petitions were referred to the tax commission. The plaintiff claimed before the commission that in appraising his land for taxation the value of the growing trees should be excluded, but the commission included the same as a part of the value of the land.

Nahum W. French, pro se.

John E. Allen, of Keene, and Marshall D. Cobleigh and Hamblett & Spring, all of Nashua, for defendant.

WALKER, J. The plaintiff claims that he is entitled to an abatement of the tax assessed upon his real estate because the assessors included in the assessment the value of the growing wood and. timber standing thereon. According to his theory, only the value of the land exclusive of the wooded growth should have been considered by the assessors. But it is unnecessary in deciding what the law is upon this subject to enter upon a discussion of philosophical theories of how taxes ought to be imposed and raised, or to consider what unused methods of taxation might have been adopted.

The statute provides that "real estate, whether improved or unimproved, and whether owned by residents or others, is liable to be taxed," excepting certain classes of real estate not material in this case. P. S. c. 55 § 2. As universally understood, the term "real estate" includes growing timber. "The words 'land,' 'lands,' or 'real estate' shall include lands, tenements, and hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein." P. S. c. 2, § 21. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, it is not to be doubted that the Legislature in declaring that real estate is taxable meant property in land as thus defined and understood, which includes timber until severed from the land. Kingsley v. Holbrook, 45 N. H. 313, 86 Am. Dec. 173; Abbott v. Baldwin, 61 N. H. 583, 585; Amoskeag Mfg. Co. v. Concord, 66 N. H. 562, 34 Atl. 241, 32 L. R. A. 621; Hodsdon v. Kennett, 73 N. H. 225, 60 Atl. 686. Because the question relates to the subject of taxation has never been held to be a reason for a different and more restricted definition of "land" than is employed when the question relates to a sale or conveyance of the same property. "Mines and quarries, though the ownership of them is severed from that of the surface, are taxable as real estate; so is standing timber, though owned separately from the land whereon it grows." Cool. Tax. (3d Ed.) 635. "The ownership of timber standing and growing on land is an interest in the land itself, and * * * assessable as realty." Fletcher v. Alcona, 72 Mich. 18, 23, 40 N. W. 36. It is held in Wilson v. Cass County, 69 Iowa, 147, 28 N. W. 483, that nursery stock growing upon land is part of the realty and should be assessed with the land. See, also, People v. Commissioners, 82 N. Y. 459; Pine County v. Tozer, 56 Minn. 288, 57 N. W. 796; Freeman v. State, 115 Ala. 208, 22 South. 560; Globe Lumber Co. v. Lockett, 106 La. 414, 30 South. 902.

As standing timber is a part of the realty for the purposes of taxation, its value is an element to be considered in ascertaining "the true value" of the land. "The selectmen shall appraise all taxable property at its full and...