Hyperlawhypertext legal database People ex rel. Street v. Barker 66 N.Y. St. Rep. 474

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People ex rel. Street v. Barker

66 N.Y. St. Rep. 474 Court N.Y. Gen. Term Decision date 1895-03-15 English

Delivered by O’Brien, J.

Contents

Majority

p. 474
The People ex rel. Bleecker Street and Fulton Ferry Railroad Company, Resp’t, v. Edward P. Barker et al., as Commissioners, etc., App’lts.
(Supreme Court, General Term, First Department,
Filed March 15, 1895.)

Headnote

Taxes—Corporations.
The market value of the shares of a corporation is an erroneous basis for determining the amount of the capital stock of such corporation liable to taxation.
Certiorari to review an assessment of relator’s personal property.
This is a certiorari to review an assessment for taxation on the personal property of the relator upon a valuation of $133,050. The record consists of the petition for the writ and the return thereto, from which it appears that the relaror made application to the commissioners to have said assessed valuation corrected, and in support of such application, submitted a statement in writing upon a printed blank furnished by the commissioners, which is as follows :
■“Department of Taxes and Assessments, Commissioners’ Office, Staats Zeitung Building, Tryon Row.
“Please state the full name of the corporation.
“Statement made and delivered to the commissioners of taxes and assessments of the city and county of New York, for and in behalf of the Bleecker street and Fulton Ferry Railroad Company of the city of New York, showing its condition, for the purpose of assessment, on the second Monday of January, 1890.
Total gross assets ............................ $
Capital stock actually paid in, or secured to be paid
in.........................................
Amount of surplus earnings....................
‘Rate of dividend for last year, or last annual dividend.......................■...............
“Is the company assessed by the state under chapter 361, Laws 1881, and the amendatory acts? Yes; paid by the Twenty-Third
Street Railway Co.
“Liabilities in detail, as follows:
p. 475
“The whole rights of this company are leased to the Twenty-Third Street Railway Company. The Bleecker Street Company has no assets and no real estate.
“Assessed value of real estate, being foundation, roadbed, and superstructure; describing particularly by ward numbers.
• Ward Map No. 2,010, ' 2d Ward.............. $ 7,000 00
“ 1,502, 4th “ 4,000 00
“ 1,303, 6th “ ........■...... 6,000 00
“ 5,003, 9th “ 10,250 00
“ 4,464B, 14th “ 6,100 00
“ 4,002, 15th “ ......;....... 6,800 00
“ 4,704, 16th “ 6,800 00
$46,950 00
Amounts invested in the stocks of other corpora-
tions which are taxed upon their capital........ $ None..
Amount invested in U. S. securities............. None.
“(If the stock of the company is worth less than par, state the actual value, and give the facts under oath, which will justify such estimate of its value).
“The highest price at which the stock has sold during the year is $25 per share, and most of the sales have been under that price.
“The principal office or the place of transacting the financial business of the said corporation is situated in the Sixteenth ward of the city of New York., at No. 621 West Twenty-Third street.”
David J. Dean, for app’lts; Thomas P. Wickes, for resp’ts.

It is insisted upon this appeal that the writ of certiorari should be quashed, because it appears that none of the grounds specified in the petition were presented to the assessors, and those not specified must be considered waived, and because, upon the application to the assessors, the assessment as made was warranted by the facts disclosed. The question of the sufficiency of the petition and the return, we think, is disposed of adversely to the appellants by the case of People ex rel. Commercial M. Ins. Co. v. Tax Com’rs of City of New York, 144 N. Y. 483 ; 64 St. Rep. 60 . As to the facts disclosed warranting the assessment, we think it therefrom appears that the method resorted to was erroneous, in that it was based upon the market value of the shares of the corporation, which, as held in the People ex rel. Union Trust Co. v. Coleman, 126 N. Y. 433 ; 38 St. Rep. 237 , was an erroneous basis for determining the amount of the capital of the corporation liable to taxation. It was therein held that it is the corporate assets constituting the capital, and not the value of its shares in the hands of individual owners, that is the subject of taxation.

We think, therefore, that the order was right, and should be affirmed, with costs.

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