FULTON PARTNERS, LLC VS. CITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK (TAX COURT OF NEW JERSEY)

CourtNew Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division
DecidedOctober 11, 2019
DocketA-4886-17T2
StatusUnpublished

This text of FULTON PARTNERS, LLC VS. CITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK (TAX COURT OF NEW JERSEY) (FULTON PARTNERS, LLC VS. CITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK (TAX COURT OF NEW JERSEY)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
FULTON PARTNERS, LLC VS. CITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK (TAX COURT OF NEW JERSEY), (N.J. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

NOT FOR PUBLICATION WITHOUT THE APPROVAL OF THE APPELLATE DIVISION This opinion shall not "constitute precedent or be binding upon any court ." Although it is posted on the internet, this opinion is binding only on the parties in the case and its use in other cases is limited. R. 1:36-3.

SUPERIOR COURT OF NEW JERSEY APPELLATE DIVISION DOCKET NO. A-4886-17T2

FULTON PARTNERS, LLC,

Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.

CITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK,

Defendant-Respondent. ______________________________

Argued September 23, 2019 – Decided October 11, 2019

Before Judges Sumners, Geiger and Natali.

On appeal from the Tax Court of New Jersey, Docket No. 003351-2017.

Joseph G. Buro argued the cause for appellant (Zipp & Tannenbaum, LLC, attorneys; Joseph G. Buro, of counsel and on the briefs).

Richard J. Mirra argued the cause for respondent (Hoagland, Longo, Moran, Dunst & Doukas, LLP, attorneys; Emil H. Philibosian, of counsel; Richard J. Mirra, on the brief).

PER CURIAM Plaintiff Fulton Partners, LLC filed a tax appeal disputing a 2017 tax

assessment of income-producing property (the Property) located in the City of New

Brunswick. New Brunswick moved to dismiss the complaint under Rule 8:7(e) due

to the then property owner's failure to respond to a request for income and expense

information pursuant to N.J.S.A. 54:4-34 (Chapter 91). Fulton Partners appeals from

a Tax Court order granting the motion in part and judgment dismissing the tax appeal

for lack of prosecution. We affirm.

I.

Fulton purchased the Property from Fulton Gardens Associates, LLP for

$3,500,000 on August 17, 2016. The deed conveying the Property to Fulton Partners

is dated August 17, 2016, but for reasons not explained in the record was not

recorded until December 21, 2016. There is no evidence in the record that a notice

of settlement was recorded in the county recording office by either the seller, or the

mortgagee pursuant to N.J.S.A. 46:26A-11.

Prior to the sale of the property, on June 1, 2016, the tax assessor for New

Brunswick sent Fulton Gardens an Annual Request for Income & Expense

Information (the Request) for the Property. The request was sent by certified mail

to 2003 Route 130, Suite F, North Brunswick, New Jersey 08902, the correct mailing

address of Fulton Gardens. Fulton Gardens was a tenant in the office building

A-4886-17T2 2 located at that street address. The certified mail was signed for and accepted on June

6, 2016, by Mary Jo Mieszkuc, who works for another company in the same office.

Mieszkuc was not an employee of Fulton Gardens.

Mieszkuc signed for Fulton Gardens' certified mail "[a]s a courtesy to other

tenants, in their absence," and "[a]s was normal practice, the mail was placed on the

filing cabinet at the front of [her] office for retrieval by the tenant." Lawrence

Bruskin, a partner at Fulton Gardens, handled such requests but does "not recall

receiving the income request."

The Request was sent according to Chapter 91 to provide income information

utilized by the tax assessor to determine the assessed value of income-producing

property. A property owner has forty-five days to respond or the assessor will value

the property with information available to the assessor. If no response is made and

the property is income-producing then the property owner loses the right to appeal

that year's assessment. The forty-five day response period ended on July 21, 2016,

some twenty-seven days before Fulton Partners purchased the Property.

Fulton Gardens made no response to the Request. The assessor valued the

Property at $4,468,300.00 for the 2017 tax year. Fulton Partners filed a tax appeal

complaint disputing the assessment. New Brunswick moved to dismiss the

complaint pursuant to Chapter 91 because the property owner, Fulton Gardens, had

A-4886-17T2 3 failed to respond to the Request. Fulton Partners opposed the motion on the

following grounds: (1) the Request was sent to the prior owner of the Property, and

discovery was needed to determine if the prior owner received the Request and

responded to it; (2) discovery was needed to explore the reevaluation company's

possible involvement in the Chapter 91 process since the New Brunswick underwent

a district-wide reevaluation in 2016 for the 2017 tax year; and (3) discovery was

needed to explore whether the Request was only a pretext aimed at dismissal of tax

appeal complaints.

The court focused on whether "the prior owner’s alleged failure to respond to

the Chapter 91 request should . . . be construed against" Fulton Partners. It noted

consistent Tax Court "precedent holds that if the predecessor did not respond to a

Chapter 91 request, then the successor owner’s complaints can be dismissed."

Following that established precedent, the court reasoned:

[S]ince the Chapter 91 request was sent to the prior owner, two months prior to the sale of the [Property], and six months prior to the recording of that sale (since a recorded deed usually puts an assessor on notice of new ownership). At the time the deed was recorded, the 45-day period had obviously expired. At this point, i.e., in December of 2016, re-sending another request to plaintiff as the current owner would be of no use since the assessments need to be finalized by January 10, of the current tax year. N.J.S.A. 54:4-35. It is plaintiff’s responsibility, as the purchaser, to ensure not only clean title, but also the status

A-4886-17T2 4 of assessments (example, added assessment, pro-rated tax payments, sewer payments), which envisages an inquiry into any correspondence from the assessor, including a Chapter 91 request. . . . [A]s noted in [Yeshivat v. Borough of Paramus, 26 N.J. Tax 335, 347 (Tax 2012)], the failure of the successor owner to exercise due diligence, and instead seek to impose “upon assessors an additional requirement to investigate the sale of properties and resend requests to the purchasers,” is asking this court to impose a duty upon the assessor which is not required by the plain language of N.J.S.A. 54:4-34. The Tax Court stayed the motion for Fulton Partners to determine if the

Property was income-producing and whether the prior owner received and

responded to the Request. Fulton Partners was directed to file any certifications or

affidavits by March 2, 2018. The court stated that following submission of further

supporting and opposing papers, the case would be scheduled for a plenary hearing,

if required.

On April 25, 2018, the Tax Court issued an order and letter opinion granting

New Brunswick's motion in part. The court determined the assessor complied in all

respects with N.J.S.A. 54:4-34 by sending the Request and a copy of the statute to

the Property's owner of record by certified mail in June 2016. This placed the burden

upon the Fulton Gardens to respond in a timely manner.

A-4886-17T2 5 Accordingly, the Tax Court granted New Brunswick's motion to dismiss in

part, subject to a reasonableness hearing. 1 As part of its ruling, the court addressed

whether Fulton Gardens received the Request. Bruskin certified he did not receive

a Chapter 91 request in 2016. New Brunswick submitted Mieszkuc's certification

that stated she commonly accepted certified mail sent to other tenants in the office

building and left the Chapter 91 request in a common area "on the filing cabinet at

the front of the office." The parties did not want to pursue a hearing to have Bruskin

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FULTON PARTNERS, LLC VS. CITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK (TAX COURT OF NEW JERSEY), Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fulton-partners-llc-vs-city-of-new-brunswick-tax-court-of-new-jersey-njsuperctappdiv-2019.