Schweizer v. Town of Pomfret, 206-75
| Decision Date | 17 September 1976 |
| Docket Number | No. 206-75,206-75 |
| Citation | 365 A.2d 134,134 Vt. 436 |
| Parties | Tod H. and Susan R. SCHWEIZER v. TOWN OF POMFRET. |
| Court | Vermont Supreme Court |
Thomas P. Wright, Woodstock, for plaintiffs.
Garfield H. Miller of Black & Plante, White River Junction, for defendant.
Before BARNEY, C. J., and SMITH, DANLEY, LARROW and BILLINGS, JJ.
For the year 1974, the listers of the Town of Pomfret appraised plaintiffs' premises at a fair market value of $35,300.00. On appeal to the Board of Civil Authority, pursuant to 32 V.S.A. § 4404, the listers' appraisal was affirmed. Plaintiffs appealed to the Commissioner of Taxes pursuant to 32 V.S.A. § 3461. The State Board of Tax Appeals conducted a de novo hearing and, after a subsequent reconsideration hearing, issued findings affirming the appraisal of the Board of Civil Authority and listers. Plaintiffs appeal to this Court from that decision.
Plaintiffs allege as error that in reaching a fair market value determination, the State Board of Tax Appeals failed to specifically set forth findings that the property subject to appeal corresponded with the listed value of comparable properties.
The plaintiffs' property is located off a private roadway approximately 3,000 to 3,500 feet in length. The house was built in 1973-74 and contains 2,600 square feet of living area. Plaintiffs introduced evidence of comparable properties, one of which was located on the same hilltop and was built a year earlier by the same builder, containing an additional 1,000 square feet of living area, together with garage and outbuildings. Although there was less land associated with the premises, all these comparable properties were appraised at a lesser value than plaintiffs. The listers of the Town of Pomfret presented evidence of comparables on the basis of a square foot valuation exclusively.
The finding made by the Board of Tax Appeals in determining the appraisal value reads:
Based upon personal inspection of the property under appeal and based upon the evidence introduced at the hearing and based upon the checking of comparable properties, the board finds and so rules that the appraisal value of $35,300.00 set by the board of listers and upheld by the board of civil authority is just, fair and equitable and therefore the said appraisal value will remain the same.
32 V.S.A. § 4467 mandates the use of comparable property values in the determination of an appeal from the Broad of Civil Authority when one of the principal issues, as here, is that the listed value of comparable properties did not correspond to the listed value of plaintiff's...
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Sondergeld v. Town of Hubbardton
...(1977). The Town had the initial burden in this de novo proceeding to produce evidence of fair market value. Schweizer v. Town of Pomfret, 134 Vt. 436, 438, 365 A.2d 134, 135 (1976). It met this burden of production through evidence that the proper per-foot valuation for Lake Beebe was $200......
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Transcanada Hydro Ne., Inc. v. Town of Newbury
...property tax appeals are set out above. Supra, ¶12. They were created by this Court and first announced in Schweizer v. Town of Pomfret, 134 Vt. 436, 438, 365 A.2d 134, 135 (1976), and applied and developed in numerous decisions thereafter. The first requirement, that a town produce its app......
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Harris v. Town of Waltham
...clear statements so that this Court and the parties will be able to determine how decision was reached); Schweizer v. Town of Pomfret, 134 Vt. 436, 437, 365 A.2d 134, 135 (1976) (Board has duty to make specific findings; to merely state that it "checked" the comparable properties constitute......
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Town of Castleton v. Parento
...v. Town of Hubbardton, 150 Vt. 565, 568, 556 A.2d 64, 66 (1988), or the reappraisal lacked uniformity, Schweizer v. Town of Pomfret, 134 Vt. 436, 438, 365 A.2d 134, 135 (1976). Should the taxpayer rebut the presumption, he nevertheless retains the burden of persuasion with respect to provin......