Magoon v. Board of Civil Authority of Town of Johnson, 406-80
| Decision Date | 02 February 1982 |
| Docket Number | No. 406-80,406-80 |
| Citation | 442 A.2d 1276,140 Vt. 612 |
| Court | Vermont Supreme Court |
| Parties | Robert A. MAGOON and Adeline M. Magoon; and State of Vermont v. BOARD OF CIVIL AUTHORITY OF the TOWN OF JOHNSON. |
John J. Easton, Jr., Atty. Gen., and J. Wallace Malley, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Montpelier, for intervenor.
Sargent & White, Morrisville, for defendant.
Before BILLINGS, HILL and UNDERWOOD, JJ., and DALEY and LARROW, JJ. (Ret.), Specially Assigned.
In 1979 plaintiffs-appellees Robert and Adeline Magoon conveyed to the intervenor State of Vermont a parcel of land consisting of 156 acres, more or less. The conveyance reserved to the Magoons for a term of forty years the exclusive use and control of forty-five acres of the parcel on which was situated a cottage and pond. In 1979 and 1980 defendant-appellee Town of Johnson assessed the forty-five acre parcel with pond and cottage to the Magoons. The Magoons paid the taxes under protest and appealed the assessment unsuccessfully to the Board of Civil Authority and then to the Lamoille Superior Court claiming that the land in question had been deeded to the State of Vermont and was not taxable to them. The State of Vermont was allowed to intervene, V.R.C.P. 24, and now appeals the trial court's order.
The State acquired by deed a fee simple absolute title in the forty-five acres with the reservation of an estate for a term of forty years. 32 V.S.A. § 3802 provides:
The following property shall be exempt from taxation:
(1) Real and personal estate owned by this state, except as otherwise provided ....
Real estate within the meaning of the tax law is land with its fixtures and accessories measurable and capable of description by metes and bounds. Hughes v. Vail, 57 Vt. 41, 44 (1885). Absent an exception the land and buildings owned by the State are exempt. The only exception applicable in 1979 and 1980 was 32 V.S.A. § 3615 (repealed May 7, 1980), which provided for a limited tax as follows:
Land held as state forests and parks shall be taxed annually, under the general tax law, at the local rate on a listed value of the land alone of not more than $8.00 an acre....
The defendant can only tax the 156 acre parcel pursuant to this statute. To do otherwise is error. Sherburne Corp. v. Town of Sherburne, 124 Vt. 481, 482, 207 A.2d 125, 126 (1965).
Defendant claims that 32 V.S.A. § 3651 provides an exception to the general exempt status of state owned land in that the town can tax the Magoons as possessors of real estate. 32 V.S.A. § 3651 provides:
Taxable real estate shall be set in the list to the last owner or possessor thereof on ...
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Barrett v. Town of Warren
...however it is physically represented, is not real property, but is instead personal property. See Magoon v. Bd. of Civil Authority of Johnson, 140 Vt. 612, 614, 442 A.2d 1276, 1276-77 (1982) ("Real estate within the meaning of the tax law is land with its fixtures and accessories measurable......
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Town of Cambridge v. Bassett, 117-81
... ... is an appeal from an order of the Northwest Board of Appraisers prohibiting the Town of Cambridge ... on appeal by the Cambridge Board of Civil Authority. 32 V.S.A. § 3846(d); 32 V.S.A. § ... Magoon v. Board of Civil Authority ... of the Town of Johnson, 140 Vt. 612, 614, 442 A.2d 1276, 1277 (1982) ... ...
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Gordon v. Bd. of Civil Auth. for Morristown
...taxes on the hangar, and the State is not responsible because it is not the owner of the hangar. Cf. Magoon v. Bd. of Civil Auth. of Johnson, 140 Vt. 612, 614-15, 442 A.2d 1276, 1277 (1982) (holding that plaintiffs were not liable for real estate taxes on property currently in their possess......