Jersey City v. Div. Of Tax Appeals In State Dep't Of Taxation

• Decision Date: 19 September 1946
• Docket Number: Nos. 254 and 255.,s. 254 and 255.
• Citation: 134 N.J.L. 454,48 A.2d 832
• Parties: JERSEY CITY v. DIVISION OF TAX APPEALS IN STATE DEPARTMENT OF TAXATION AND FINANCE et al.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

134 N.J.L. 454

48 A.2d 832

JERSEY CITY

v.DIVISION OF TAX APPEALS IN STATE DEPARTMENT OF TAXATION AND FINANCE et al.

Nos. 254 and 255.

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Sept. 19, 1946.

Applications for certiorari by the City of Jersey City to review a judgment of the Division of Tax Appeals in the State Department of Taxation and Finance, dismissing the city's appeal from the action of the Hudson County Board of Taxation with respect to assessments.

Writ of certiorari allowed.

January term, 1946, before DONGES, HEHER, and COLIE, JJ.

Charles A. Rooney, of Jersey City (Charles Hershenstein, Arthur C. Mullen, and John F. Lynch, Jr., all of Jersey City, of counsel), for prosecutor.

Carpenter, Gilmour & Dwyer, of Jersey City, for defendant Hudson & M. R. Co. et al.

John Warren, of Jersey City, for defendant Guardian Life Ins. Co. et al.

Irving Eisenberg, Deputy Atty. Gen., for defendant Commissioner of Banking and Insurance.

COLIE, Justice.

In case No. 254 the City of Jersey City seeks a writ of certiorari to review a judgment of the Division of Tax Appeals, Department of Taxation and Finance, dismissing the City's appeal from the action of the Hudson County Board of Taxation with respect to the 1943 assessments. In case No. 255, the same situation exists with reference to the 1944 assessments. Identical questions are involved so that a discussion of the matter of the 1943 assessments will suffice and the disposition of case No. 254 will be dispositive of case No. 255 also.

The tax assessor of Jersey City made and filed his assessment list with the Hudson County Board of Taxation. The County Board, acting under the authority of R.S. 54:4-47, N.J.S.A., to ‘revise, correct and equalize the assessed value of all property in the * * * taxing district’ reduced the assessment on 34,431 properties by the sum of $95,816,335. Jersey City took separate appeals on each reduction in assessed value to the Hudson County Board of Taxation pursuant to R.S. 54:3-21, N.J.S.A., which gives the right of appeal to ‘a taxing district which may feel discriminated against by the assessed valuation * * * in the taxing district.’ The County Board dismissed all the appeals, whereupon that action of the County Board was appealed by the City to the Division of Tax Appeals and that body in turn dismissed the appeals taken to it. On behalf of certain taxpayers in the taxing district, it is urged that writs should not be allowed because the City had a right of appeal to the...