In re Delinquent Taxes for 1924 and 1925, Kittson County

• Decision Date: 09 November 1928
• Docket Number: 26,897
• Citation: 221 N.W. 725,175 Minn. 478
• Parties: IN RE DELINQUENT TAXES FOR 1924 AND 1925, KITTSON COUNTY; v. L. C. FRITCH AND ANOTHER STATE
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

221 N.W. 725

175 Minn. 478

IN RE DELINQUENT TAXES FOR 1924 AND 1925, KITTSON COUNTY;

STATE v. L. C. FRITCH AND ANOTHER

No. 26,897

Supreme Court of Minnesota

November 9, 1928

Two actions in the district court for Kittson county, tried together, to enforce payment of taxes on real estate in said county levied in 1924 and 1925 and delinquent in 1926 and 1927, respectively. There were findings reducing the valuation and tax on the several tracts. From an order Grindeland, J. denying their motion for a new trial defendants as trustees of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company, appealed, their contention being that as so reduced the valuation and tax is still excessive. Affirmed.

SYLLABUS

Reduced valuation of unimproved lands sustained.

1. The evidence sustains the valuation for taxation of certain unimproved lands as reduced by the court.

Intentional overvaluation of unimproved and undervaluation of improved lands not proved.

2. Defendants failed clearly to prove that the assessing authorities, in determining the value of lands, intentionally and systematically overvalued the unimproved and undervalued the improved, and were not entitled to the finding requested and denied on that issue.

Taxation, 37 Cyc. p. 1311 n. 8.

O'Brien, Horn & Stringer, for appellants.

A. D. Bornemann, County Attorney, for the state.

OPINION

HOLT, J.

Appeal from the order denying defendants a new trial in proceedings to enforce payment of delinquent taxes on real estate in Kittson county.

The court made findings reducing the valuation and tax upon the several tracts. But the claim is made that as so reduced it is still excessive. It is further contended that the assessments as made in the two townships involved reveal such an unfair discrimination between improved and unimproved lands that the assessments upon defendant's unimproved lands should be reduced to a proportionate level with the assessments upon the improved.

The lands in question are flat, with imperfect natural drainage, containing patches of brush and grass or marsh vegetation. The soil is infested with boulders to more or less extent. It is wild land and of the same general quality as other wild land in those assessment districts. Of late years there have been no sales of such lands or of improved lands in that vicinity. It is readily seen that a literal application of the rule announced in In re Taxes of Potlach Timber Co. 160 Minn. 209, 199 N.W. 968, would prevent the fixing of values for assessment purposes upon large tracts of wild lands in many localities in this state during protracted periods of depression of the real estate market. Taxes have to be levied, and to that end assessors must make valuation of real estate every two years regardless of whether any of the lands could or could not then be sold. G.S. 1923, § 1992, reads:

"All property shall be assessed at its true and full value in money. In determining such value, the assessor shall not adopt a lower or different standard of value because the same is to serve as a basis of taxation, nor shall he adopt as a criterion of value the price for which the said property would sell at auction or at a forced sale, or in the aggregate with all the property in the town or district; but he shall value each article or description of property by itself, and at such sum or price as he believes the same to be fairly worth in money. * * *"

It is up to the assessor to form an opinion of the market value even when there is no market or sales to aid in fixing values. The court found the full value of the different 40-acre tracts to be from $10 per acre on some and up to $13 per acre on others. True, witnesses for defendants placed the value as low as $2 per acre and as high as $4 or $5. But the fact remains that in 1917 defendants had entered into an executory contract to sell some of this land as high as $15.80 an acre. There is also some evidence that in 1924, when this assessment was made and after the depression in real estate values, defendants have had the lands, or some of them, listed for sale at $8 per acre. The assessor, a member of the equalization board, and other long-time residents of the towns involved testified to values exceeding those found by the court.

Where there have been no actual sales for a long period of time there is no way of determining values except by the judgment and opinion of men acquainted with the lands, their adaptability for use,...