United N.J. R. & Canal Co. v. State Bd. of Taxes & Assessment, and five other cases

• Decision Date: 31 March 1925
• Docket Number: No. 235,No. 224,No. 225,No. 254,No. 233,No. 236,224,225,233,235,236,254
• Citation: 128 A. 427
• Parties: UNITED NEW JERSEY R. & CANAL CO. v. STATE BOARD OF TAXES AND ASSESSMENT et al., and five other cases.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

128 A. 427

UNITED NEW JERSEY R. & CANAL CO.

v. STATE BOARD OF TAXES AND ASSESSMENT et al., and five other cases.

Nos. 224, 225, 233, 235, 236, and 254.^*

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

March 31, 1925.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Separate proceedings in certiorari by the United New Jersey Railroad & Canal Company; the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, lessee; the Long Dock Company; the Erie Railroad Company, lessee; the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company; the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company of New Jersey; the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey; and the New York Bay Railroad Company; the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, lessee—against the State Board of Taxes and Assessment and others, to review assessments of property for taxation. Assessments on 20 tracts of land affirmed, and en 5 tracts reduced.

See, also, 125 A. 335; 98 N. J. Law, 283, 125 A. 921; 125 A. 923; 128 A. 432.

Argued January term, 1925, before KALISCH, BLACK, and CAMPBELL, JJ.

Maxmillian Stallman, of Newark, and Albert C. Wall and Robert J. Bain, both of Jersey City, for prosecutors.

Edward P. Stout, of Jersey City, for defendants.

BLACK, J. No. 235. The Properties of the United New Jersey Railroad & Canal Company, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, Lessee. The properties involved in this appeal, taxes for 1923, are four tracts of land: First tract—30.564 acres, assessed at $95,000 per acre; total assessment, $2,903,580. Second tract—3.623 acres, assessed at $95,000 per acre; total assessment, $344,185. Third tract—98.835 acres, assessed at $88,100 per acre; total assessment, $8,707,363. Fourth tract—6.682 acres, assessed at $88,100 per acre; total assessment, $588,684.

No. 225. The Properties of the Long Dock Company, the Erie Railroad Company, Lessee. The properties involved in this appeal taxes for 1923, are five tracts of land: First tract—16.555 acres, assessed at $87,000 per acre; total assessment, $1,440,285. Second tract—67.830 acres assessed at $90,000 per acre; total assessment, $6,104,700. Third tract—2.816 acres assessed at $90,000 per acre; total assessment, $253,440. Fourth tract—3.164 acres assessed at $90,000 per acre; total assessment, $284,760. Fifth tract, called the elevator tract land outside of main stem.—block 16, lot B-l, 10.298 acres, assessed at $87,000 per acre. This was assessed by the local assessors prior to 1922; total assessment, $897,200. This tract is contiguous to the first tract of 16.555 acres in block 16, B-6.

No. 254. The Properties of the Delaware Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company. The properties involved in this appeal, taxes for 1923, are five tracts of land: First tract —131.840 acres, assessed at $95,000 per acre; total assessment, $12,524,800. Second tract —40.068 acres, assessed at $96,000 per acre; total assessment, $3,846,528. Third tract— 1.525 acres, assessed at $75,000 per acre; total assessment, $114,375. Fourth tract— 3.240 acres, assessed at $95,000 per acre; total assessment, $307,800. Fifth tract— 3.728 acres, assessed at $96,000 per acre; total assessment, $357,888.

No. 224. The Properties of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company of New Jersey. The properties involved in this appeal, taxes for 1923, are three tracts of land: First tract—5.941 acres, assessed at $40,000 per acre; total assessment, $237,640. Second tract—22.543 acres, assessed at $40,000 per acre; total assessment, $901,720. This tract is described on the map and in the testimony as 25.673 acres. Corrected by the state board. Third tract—38.380 acres, assessed at $65,000 per acre; total assessment, $2,494,700. This is a portion of the "Morris Canal grant," called the Big Basin. The parcel is 38.380 acres. It includes the land of a public waterway, 250 feet wide, having an area of $12.541 acres. The point made by the company is that it is not liable for this tax. Its area should be deducted from the assessed area, leaving 25.839 acres, for which the prosecutor claims it is liable for the taxes of 1923, at $65,000 per acre—$1,679,535. A waterway 250 feet wide through the Big Basin was to be conveyed to the state of New Jersey under an agreement dated November 29,

1922, in pursuance of the statute (P. L. 1922. p. 367). This point is disposed of in our opinion this term, in case No. 232, Lehigh Valley R. R. Co., Lessee, v. State Board of Taxes and Assessment.

No. 233. The Properties of the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey. The properties involved in this appeal, taxes for 1923, are six tracts of land: First tract— 6.302 acres, assessed at $40,000 per acre; total assessment, $252,080. Second tract— 71.300 acres, assessed at $40,000 per acre; total assessment, $2,852,000. Reduced by the Supreme Court to $28,000 per acre for the taxes of 1922. Affirmed at that figure. Third tract—84.724 acres, assessed at $30,000 per acre; total assessment, $2,541,720. Reduced by the Supreme Court to $20,000 per acre for the taxes of 1922. Affirmed at that figure. Fourth tract—96.049 acres, assessed at $25,000 per acre; total assessment, $2,401,225. Reduced by the Supreme Court to $17.500 per acre for the taxes of 1922. Affirmed at that figure. Fifth tract—28.718 acres, assessed at $40,000 per acre; total assessment, $1,148,720. Sixth tract—24.613 acres, assessed at $40,000 per acre; total assessment. $984,520. The assessments on the first, fifth, and sixth tracts of land are affirmed.

No. 236. The Properties of the New York Bay Railroad Company, the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, lessee. The properties involved in this appeal, taxes for 1923, are two tracts of land: First tract—12,731 acres, assessed at $20,000 per acre; total assessment, $254,620. Reduced by the Supreme Court to $16,000 per acre for the taxes of 1922. Affirmed at that figure. Second tract —343.137 acres, assessed at $20,000 per acre; total assessment, $6,862,740. Reduced by the Supreme Court to $15,000 per acre for the taxes of 1922. Reduced to $16,000 per acre.

These properties, as to location and description may be divided into three groups, by way of further identification:

First Group.—No. 235. The four tracts of land of the United New Jersey Railroad & Canal Company, Pennsylvania Railroad Company, lessee. No. 225. The five tracts of land of the Long Dock Company, Erie Railroad Company, lessee. These tracts lie between the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad systems. No. 254. The five tracts of land of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company. Fourteen tracts of land. They are contiguous. They are located at the pierhead of deep water on the Hudson river. They extend from Exchange Place, in Jersey City, to Ferry street, in Hoboken, something over a mile. They lie opposite Now York City, between Cortlandt and Christopher streets. They are bounded on the south by Exchange Place and Montgomery street, on the west by Henderson street in Jersey City, on the north by Perry street in Hoboken, on the east by the Hudson river. They can be reached from all these streets, by the Hudson Tubes, by the electric trolley and auto bus transportation lines, and from all parts of Jersey City and Hudson county. Assessments, from $96,000 to $75,000 per acre.

Second Group.—No. 224. The three tracts of land of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company. No. 233. The six tracts of land of the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey. Nine tracts of land. These tracts of land lie contiguous to each other. They are located in part back from the Hudson river and in part on New York Bay. They lie opposite Battery Park in New York City, from a half to three-quarters of a mile from the nearest point of the United New Jersey Railroad & Canal Company lands in group No. 1. They are bounded on the north by the Tidewater Basin, which extends from the Hudson river to the westerly end, at Jersey avenue, of the 22.543-acre tract of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, on the east by other lands of the companies facing the Hudson river and New York Bay, on the south by other lands of the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey, and on the west by Jersey avenue and other lands of the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey. Access to these tracts of land from Jersey City is by way of Johnson avenue—a well-paved street running from Grand street to the Central Railroad Company's ferry; it runs between the first and sixth tracts of land of the Central Railroad Company—and by Jersey avenue. Assessments from $40,000 to $25,000 per acre.

Third Group.—No. 236. New York Bay Railroad Company, Pennsylvania Railroad Company, lessee. Two tracts of land. They are from 2 1/2 to 2 1/2 miles front the nearest point of the lands of the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey in group No. 2. They lie west of Caven Point and the lands of the National Storage Docks. They are near the Bayonne city line. They extend from the Morris Canal south into New York Bay, something over a mile. There is no practical access to these lands across the Morris Canal from Jersey City. They are assessed at $20,000 per acre.

There are 11 reasons filed for reducing the assessments. They all, however, turn substantially upon one point, viz. the valuations are in excess of the true value of the lands, according to the legal evidence before the state board of taxes and assessment.

The Supreme Court is therefore called upon, in the exercise of its duty, not only under the Certiorari Act (P. L. 1907, p. 95: 1 Comp. Sts. N.J. p. 406, § 11), but also under the Railroad Tax Act (4 Comp. Sts. N. J. p. 5270, § 457; P. L. 1888, p. 277, § 13), to examine and analyze the evidence, to reverse or affirm, in whole or in part, for "palpable error" appearing in the record (Long Dock Co. v. State Board of Assessors, 89 N. J. Law, 110, 97 A. 900, affirmed 90 N. J. Law, 701, 101 A. 367); to ascertain whether the amount of the tax is excessive or insufficient, or whether the principles upon which the assessments are made are erroneous (Long Dock Co. v. State Board of Assessors, 86 N. J. Law, 592, 92 A. 439; ...