Lincoln Land Company v. Phelps County

• Decision Date: 09 November 1899
• Docket Number: 9,006
• Citation: 80 N.W. 818,59 Neb. 249
• Parties: LINCOLN LAND COMPANY v. PHELPS COUNTY
• Court: Nebraska Supreme Court

80 N.W. 818

59 Neb. 249

LINCOLN LAND COMPANY v. PHELPS COUNTY

No. 9,006

Supreme Court of Nebraska

November 9, 1899

ERROR from the district court of Phelps county. Tried below before BEALL, J. Affirmed.

AFFIRMED.

J. W Deweese, F. E. Bishop and W. S. Morlan, for plaintiff in error.

A. J Shafer and S. A. Dravo, contra.

OPINION

SULLIVAN, J.

The Lincoln Land Company was the owner, in 1896, of 528 lots in the city of Holdrege. These lots were assessed for taxation at an average value of $ 43.79. The company, deeming the assessment unfair, presented its grievance to the town board of equalization, which, after a full hearing, refused to grant any redress. The complaint was then brought before the county board, sitting as a board of equalization. Evidence was there taken touching the correctness of the assessment, and an order made reducing the value of the company's property, for the purposes of taxation, to eighty-five per cent of the value fixed thereon by the assessor. A judgment of the district court affirming this order is the matter complained of in the petition in error.

It appears from the record that the assessors of Phelps county agreed among themselves to make the 1896 assessment on the basis of one-fifth the actual value of the property assessed. It likewise appears that the assessor for the town of Holdrege, in the performance of his duty, adhered to this arrangement, and, in the exercise of his best judgment, fixed values accordingly. His testimony is in part as follows:

"Q. In assessing property in Holdrege, Mr. Gainsforth, you may state whether you have not given the real estate and vacant lots a uniform valuation.

"A. I tried to as far as possible.

"Q. State whether or not you discriminated against non-resident lot owners.

"Mr. Morlan: The Lincoln Land Company claims that the lots owned by the Lincoln Land Company are assessed higher than improved real estate in said city and county, land in said county and personal property in said county, but does not claim that the assessor discriminated against the Lincoln Land Company in favor of any other lot owners owning vacant lots in the city of Holdrege or the first or second additions thereto.

"Q. You may state whether in assessing the vacant property you placed a fair valuation thereon.

"A. I tried to as best I could from what information I could find as to what the lots were held at. I inquired in the west and north and south and center of town about the prices of these lots. I was informed that a certain man in the second addition offered $ 1,000 for three lots and the Lincoln Land Company would not sell them, and I was informed that they were offered $ 650 for a back lot in the center of town and would not take it.

"Q. State whether or not the assessment of the vacant lots is in fair proportion to the improved lots.

"A. I suppose so."

Other witnesses testified in regard to the value of the complainant's lots, their estimates ranging all the way from $ 45 to $ 150. There was considerable evidence tending to show that the assessed value of the company's property was excessive in comparison with the assessed value of the company's property generally in Phelps county. But there was no proof whatever that the assessed valuation of the lots in question did not bear a just relation to the assessed valuation of other property in the town of Holdrege. There were in the city of Holdrege 793 vacant lots, and the average value thereof, as fixed by the assessor, was $ 46.34. It may be that all property in the town was valued too high. It may be that the assessor's opinion of real estate values was influenced too much by a buoyant and optimistic temperament but it can not be said that the company was aggrieved within the meaning of section 62 of the revenue act (Compiled Statutes, 1899, ch. 77, art. 1), unless the valuation of...