Tr.s Of Rutgers Univ. v. Piscataway Tp. In Middlesex County
| Decision Date | 08 March 1946 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 241, 242.,s. 241, 242. |
| Citation | 46 A.2d 56,134 N.J.L. 85 |
| Parties | TRUSTEES OF RUTGERS UNIVERSITY v. PISCATAWAY TP. IN MIDDLESEX COUNTY et al. |
| Court | New Jersey Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Certiorari by the Trustees of Rutgers University against the Township of Piscataway, in the County of Middlesex, and the State Board of Tax Appeals, to review an assessment upon the university's stadium and field house, on the ground that the stadium property was exempt and that in any event assessment was in excess of true value.
Writs dismissed.
October term, 1945, before DONGES, HEHER, and COLIE, JJ.
Fred W. DeVoe, of New Brunswick (William F. McCloskey, of New Brunswick, of counsel), for prosecutor.
Maurice M. Bernstein, of Newark, for respondent Township of Piscataway.
The main campus of Rutgers University is located in the City of New Brunswick, south of the Raritan River. In 1935 the University acquired a tract of approximately 138 acres north of the Raritan River in the Township of Piscataway. In 1936 the trustees decided to improve the facilities for physical education and in furtherance of that decision, the entire acreage of 138 acres was graded, drained and landscaped for use as athletic fields. On one part of the tract there was a natural ravine, at the bottom of which a football playing field, surrounded by an elliptical running track, was built. The natural slope of the west and north sides of the ravine were covered by concrete stands extending from the level of the playing field to the top of the slope and so constructed as to furnish seats for spectators. On the east side of the playing field, a field house was constructed which contained a locker room with 350 or 400 lockers, shower baths, dressing, wash, boiler, storage, trainers' and physicians' rooms. The roof of this field house sloped down from the top of the ravine to the level of the playing field and was so constructed as to provide additional seats for spectators. The seating capacity on the three sides of the stadium afforded accommodations for 20,000 spectators.
For the year 1942 the Township of Piscataway assessed a tax against the stadium property in the sum of $75,625 of which $15,625 was allocated to the land and $60,000 to the improvement thereon. Rutgers University appealed the assessment to the County Board and then to the State Board of Taxation, both of which affirmed the assessment. It then applied for and was allowed a writ of certiorari on the ground that the stadium property was exempt from taxation, and a further writ on the ground that the assessment was in excess of true value.
If this property is exempt from taxation, the authority for such exemption must be found in R.S. 54:4-3.6, N.J.S.A., the pertinent part of which reads:
‘The following property shall be exempt from taxation under this chapter: All buildings actually used for colleges, schools, academies, or seminaries; * * * the land whereon any of the buildings hereinbefore mentioned are erected, and which may be necessary for the fair enjoyment thereof, and which is devoted to the purposes above-mentioned and to no other purpose and does not exceed five acres in extent; * * *.’
It is entirely settled that st...
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