National Folding Box Co. v. City of New Haven

Decision Date30 June 1959
Citation146 Conn. 578,153 A.2d 420
PartiesNATIONAL FOLDING BOX COMPANY, INC. v. CITY OF NEW HAVEN (two cases). Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut
CourtConnecticut Supreme Court

George W. Crawford, New Haven, with whom, on the brief, was Harold M. Mulvey, New Haven, for appellant (defendant) in each case.

Frank E. Callahan, New Haven, with whom was John E. Ecklund, New Haven, for appellee (plaintiff) in each case.

Before DALY, C. J., and BALDWIN, KING, MURPHY and MELLITZ, JJ.

BALDWIN, Associate Justice.

These are appeals by the defendant from judgments entered on a report of a committee appointed on appeal to the Court of Common Pleas from the action of the board of tax review of the defendant in fixing the valuation for the purpose of levying real estate taxes on the lists of 1954 and 1955 on the land and buildings of the plaintiff's manufacturing plant. The appeals, one for each of the two years, have been combined under Practice Book, § 382.

The assessment date in New Haven is June 1 in each year. As of June 1, 1954, the city assessors valued the plaintiff's lands, of which there were eleven parcels, at $327,195, and the buildings, of which there were twenty-four, at $3,527,410, a total of $3,854,605. As of June 1, 1955, they valued the land as in 1954, and the buildings at $3,134,050, a total of $3,461,245. The change in the valuation of the buildings was due in part to a reduction in the value of one and the listing of a new office and warehouse. On the appeals to the board of tax review, it reduced the valuation on the buildings on the list of 1954 to $2,997,970 but otherwise made no change.

A committee of three appointed by the court conducted an extensive hearing and viewed the plaintiff's premises. The report of the committee, as corrected in response to the defendant's motion to correct, discloses the following facts: The plaintiff's property is in the northeastern section of New Haven. The eleven parcels of land are irregular in shape and size and are traversed by several streets. On the west, some of the land borders the Mill River, a nonnavigable stream. Portions of the land are low and subject to flooding. Most of the buildings are constructed on piles which are not holding up well. The buildings are of varying size, shape and construction. While they are in a fair state of repair, as a whole, they present an antiquated and inefficient manufacturing plant and one which would not be reproduced. Six of the buildings were constructed in 1906 and one in 1915. Five of these are multistoried, old and outmoded. These seven buildings contain 406,236 square feet of floor space out of a total of 673,108 in all of the buildings. There is a great deal of waste space in them. The valuation made by the assessors on the list of 1953 was $88,955 on the land and $1,138,800 on the buildings, a total of $1,227,755. In 1954 the assessors were engaged in the revaluation of real estate required every ten years. Rev.1958, § 12-62. There had been no revaluation of the plaintiff's properties since 1938 because of the war and an extension of the statutory requirement. Cum.Sup.1955, § 1046d. The values on the lists of 1954 and 1955 were the result of the 1954 revaluation.

The committee report contains a valuation for each of the plaintiff's twenty-five buildings and for each of the eleven parcels of land. The committee found that the fair market value of the land, on the list of 1954, was $190,000, and of the buildings, $975,000, a total of $1,165,000; on the list of 1955, $190,000 for the land, and $1,050,000 for the buildings, a total of $1,240,000. The difference between the values placed on the buildings on the two lists is due to the addition on the 1955 list of the new office and warehouse building. The committee specifically found: '[T]he highest and best use of the subject property [is] for lease or sale to investors who are attracted by the possibility of renting as separate buildings or spaces in buildings to manufacturers requiring relatively smaller areas. The fair market value is principally determined by sales of other industrial plants. These sale prices are regulated largely by the potential net income which an investor expects to realize from multitenant operation.'

The defendant by motion sought extensive corrections in the finding, some of which were made by the committee. Those made included additional facts which had been incorporated in the summary above, a statement of the defendant's claims before the committee, and rulings on evidence which were challenged by the defendant. As the defendant in its brief in this court has abandoned its challenge to the rulings on evidence, they need not be considered further. After the committee had ruled upon the motion to correct, the defendant filed exceptions to the acceptance of the report as corrected and a motion that the report be rejected. The court overruled the exceptions, denied the motion and accepted the report. It is unnecessary to detail the exceptions taken to the report and passed upon by the court because they are fully comprehended in the claims which were made before us and which we discuss below.

The defendant now claims that the report of the committee does not conform to the statutes and rules of procedure because the subordinate facts contained in it are not sufficient to support the ultimate facts found by the committee or to enable the trial court properly to adjudicate the legal issues involved. Rev.1958, § 52-425; Practice Book, §§ 174-177. Section 168 of the Practice Book provides that the report of a committee should ordinarily state only the ultimate facts found and the conclusions reached. See Cohn v. Hartford, 130 Conn. 699, 706, 37 A.2d 237, 152 A.L.R. 604; Hollister v. Cox, 131 Conn. 523, 525, 41 A.2d 93, 156 A.L.R. 1412; Maltbie, Conn.App.Proc. p. 271. A party may, however, request a finding of subordinate facts and the rulings made by the committee. Practice Book, § 168; State v. Giant's Neck Land & Improvement Co., 118 Conn. 350, 355, 172 A. 861. Obviously, the facts found and the conclusions reached in the report must be adequate to support the judgment rendered. Rice v. Rice, 134 Conn. 440, 445, 58 A.2d 523. The crucial question on a motion to correct and on exceptions to a committee's report is whether the facts found and the conclusions reached are adequate for the consideration of the claims of law made by the parties. The report of the present committee meets this test. Furthermore, we have examined with care the extensive excerpts from the evidence contained in the appendices to the briefs of the parties, as well as the exhibits referred to, in order to gain a complete comprehension of the legal issues raised. See Independent Methodist Episcopal Church v. Davis, 137 Conn. 1, 11, 74 A.2d 203.

After the defendant had filed its motion to correct, the plaintiff filed a memorandum on that motion. The defendant claims that the memorandum was improperly filed and was improperly considered by the committee. It is true that the rules do not require the filing of any such document. They do, however, permit both parties to ask for corrections in the report. Practice Book, § 171. If a party desires to assist the committee in considering a motion to correct filed by the opposing party, there seems no logical reason why he should be denied the opportunity to do so. It is within his right to support a report in his favor, as well as to suggest, by way of a motion to correct, amendments which he believes would improve it. There is no merit in this claim.

The defendant claims further that an expert witness who was produced by the plaintiff and who testified at length concerning the replacement cost of the plaintiff's buildings omitted from his calculations fixtures worth many thousands of dollars. These fixtures, such as humidifying systems, fans, cranes, boilers, stokers, water tanks, and artesian wells, were not listed or described by the assessors as items which entered into any of the values fixed by them. The committee viewed the premises, as had the chairman of the board of assessors, and it is fair to assume that the fixtures, as integral parts of the buildings, entered into the estimates of value which were made. If it is conceded that the failure of the witness to include these items was improper, it was harmless because the committee did not adopt the method of valuation advanced by him.

The defendant's motion to correct and the exceptions to the report challenge facts contained in it. These facts are supported by competent evidence, and the conclusions are logically drawn from the facts. The court did not err in accepting the report and ordering judgment entered upon it, unless the committee made some error of law. Morgan v. Hill, 139 Conn. 159, 161, 90 A.2d 641; Hartford-Connecticut Trust Co. v. Putnam Phalanx, 138 Conn. 695, 698, 88 A.2d 393; Housing Authority v. Pezenik, 137 Conn. 442, 445, 78 A.2d 546.

The liability of real property in this state to taxation is fixed by statute 'at a uniform percentage of its present true and actual valuation, not exceeding one hundred percent of such valuation, to be determined by the assessors.' Rev.1958, § 12-64. The 'present true and actual value' of taxable property is defined by statute to be 'the fair market value thereof and not its value at a forced or auction sale.' Rev.1958, § 12-63. 'The expressions 'actual valuation,' 'actual value,' 'market value,' 'market price' and * * * 'fair value' are synonymous.' Sibley v. Middlefield, 143 Conn. 100, 106, 120 A.2d 77, 80, citing Sanford v. Peck, 63 Conn. 486, 493, 27 A. 1057. 'Usually, these expressions mean the figure fixed by sales in ordinary business transactions, and they are established when other property of the same...

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