People ex rel. MacCracken v. Miller

• Decision Date: 20 July 1943
• Parties: PEOPLE ex rel. MacCRACKEN v. MILLER et al., Commissioners of Taxes and Assessments.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

291 N.Y. 55
50 N.E.2d 542

PEOPLE ex rel. MacCRACKEN
v.
MILLER et al., Commissioners of Taxes and Assessments.

Court of Appeals of New York.

July 20, 1943.

Appeal from Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department.

Certiorari proceeding by the People of the State of New York, on the relation of Edith C. MacCracken, against William S. Miller and others, as Commissioners of Taxes and Assessments of the City of New York. From an order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the First Judicial Department, 265 App.Div. 1046, 39 N.Y.S.2d 1010, which unanimously modified, on the law and the facts, on new findings, and affirmed as modified, an order of the court at Special Term, McLaughlin, J., reducing assessments made by the defendants on relator's real property in the City of New York for purposes of taxation for the tax years 1939-1940 and 1940-1941 by further reducing the assessments, the defendants appeal.

Affirmed.

[50 N.E.2d 543]

Robert H. Schaffer, Acting Corporation Counsel, of New York City (Arthur A. Segall, Arthur H. Goldberg, and Edmund B. Hennefeld, all of New York City, of counsel), for appellants.

William H. King and Herbert Whyman, both of New York City, for respondent.

LEHMAN, Chief Judge.

In March, 1939, the relator purchased a private dwelling at 1025 Fifth Avenue for the sum of $137,500, paid in cash. This dwelling had been erected in 1907 by a man of great wealth upon a plot forty feet wide, and was occupied by him until his death in June, 1938. After his death the property was transferred to his legatee, who did not desire to occupy it. For the year 1939-40 the property was assessed at $280,000; land $230,000, building $50,000. For the year 1940-41 the property was assessed at $260,000; land $210,000, building $50,000. Applications were filed for the correction of the assessment in both years and, after denial of the applications, certiorari proceedings were commenced to review the assessments. At the hearing in Special Term, witnesses, qualified as experts, were produced by each side and they expressed strongly divergent opinions as to the value of the property. The trial court reduced the assessment for the year 1939-40 to $238,000; land $198,000, building $40,000; and for the year 1940-41 reduced the valuation of the building an additional $2,000. The Appellate Division reduced the assessment for each year to $145,000; land $120,000, building $25,000.

Three companion cases in which the Appellate Division reversed findings of the court at Special Term in certiorari cases to review tax assessments were argued in this court on the same day and are decided herewith. People ex rel. Prudential Ins. Co. v. Lilly, 291 N.Y. 600, 50 N.E.2d 1011;People ex rel. Chemical Bank & Trust Co. v. Miller, 291 N.Y. 507, 50 N.E.2d 646;People ex rel. Bryant Park Building, Inc., v. Miller, 291 N.Y. 528, 50 N.E.2d 652. In all these cases the city has urged that ‘the Appellate Division may not substitute its finding of value for the finding of the Trial Justice unless the latter finding is clearly contrary to the weight of the...