People ex rel. Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. McGiffert

Majority

p. 1127

PEOPLE ex rel. PENNSYLVANIA COAL CO., Respondent, v. McGIFFERT et al., Appellants.

(Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department.

April 6, 1897.)

Headnote

Certiorari by' the Pennsylvania Coal Company against James D. McGiffert, George Brown, Hiram e Schoonmaker, and Samuel C. Kernahan, as assessors of the city of Newburgh, county of Orange, and Daniel J. Coutant, city clerk of said city, to review an assessment.

C. L. Waring, for appellants.

John A. Garver, for respondent.

In the diversity of the opinion evidence contained in this record as to the value of the relator’s property, we think the estimate of Mr. John A. Bensel approximates most closely to the true value, as indicated by many facts concerning which there is no controversy. His valuation of the structures, aside from the land, is $252,000, to which should be added §10,000, representing the cost of supervising the construction. The proof justifies the conclusion that the land alone is worth $100,000, making a total of $362,000. To assess the relator in the same proportion as other taxpayers in Newburgh, 60 per cent, of this value should be taken as the subject of assessment; that is to say, §217,200. The judgment should be modified so as to reduce the relator’s assessment from §315,000 to $217.200, instead of to $156,-000; and as thus modified it should be affirmed, without costs.