Hainesport Township. v. Burlington County Board of Taxation

25 N.J. Tax 138
CourtNew Jersey Tax Court
DecidedMay 15, 2009
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 25 N.J. Tax 138 (Hainesport Township. v. Burlington County Board of Taxation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Tax Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hainesport Township. v. Burlington County Board of Taxation, 25 N.J. Tax 138 (N.J. Super. Ct. 2009).

Opinion

MENYUK, J.T.C.

Plaintiffs Hainesport Township and Mount Laurel Township (collectively, the “Townships”) challenge orders of the Burlington County Board of Taxation (the “Board”) * directing the Townships to implement complete revaluations by September 30, 2009 to be effective for the 2010 tax year on the ground that the orders are invalid and void because the Board acted without a quorum. This issue originally came before the court on motions by both Townships to amend the respective complaints to add a count alleging [141]*141that there were three vacancies on the Board that had an authorized membership of five, that only the remaining two members of the Board acted on the revaluation orders, and that the Board’s actions were therefore invalid. The Townships also moved for summary judgment on the proposed new count of the complaint.

Following the grant of the motions to amend and denial of the motions for summary judgment for reasons originally set forth in a letter opinion dated April 1, 2009, Mount Laurel Township moved for reconsideration upon learning in a newspaper article that the Ocean County Board of Taxation had only one remaining member out of an authorized membership of seven, and had been advised by the Office of the Attorney General that the single member could convene meetings and administer board affairs, but that he was prohibited from entering judgments on local property tax appeals. In a bench opinion delivered on May 15, that motion was also denied.1

The facts are as follows. By separate orders dated May 18, 2008, the Board directed Hainesport Township and Mount Laurel Township and their respective assessors to conduct complete revaluations. Both orders recited that the Board was acting pursuant to its statutory duties under N.J.S.A. 54:4-47 and N.J.S.A. 54:3-13. Each order also set forth certain factual findings made by the Board with respect to each Township’s ratio of assessed to true valuation and general coefficient of deviation. Finally, both orders concluded that the statistical pattern evidenced by the statistical findings reflected an assessment pattern that lacked uniformity and did not conform to the assessment standard of 100% of true value established by the Board.

Both orders were signed on behalf of the Board by Eileen R. Carlos, President, and Joseph Andl, Vice President. Both orders were also approved and signed by the Director, Division of Taxation (“Director”). The record does not disclose the date on which the Director approved the orders, but the orders as so [142]*142approved were served on the respective Townships together with a letter dated June 18, 2008.

Hainesport Township filed its complaint with the Tax Court on August 1, 2008, and Mount Laurel Township filed its complaint on August 6, 2008. The complaints alleged that the statistics cited by the Board in each order did not warrant revaluation, and that in any event, the time provided by the orders in which to conduct a revaluation was unrealistic if not impossible. The Townships also alleged that the current market with its falling real estate prices was not an appropriate time to conduct a revaluation. Each complaint asked the court to vacate the order of revaluation. The Board filed answers in October 2008.

On January 9, 2009, the Townships filed motions to amend the complaints and for summary judgment. The initial papers submitted by the Townships in support of their motions contained sparse facts. Each Township submitted the certification of its respective attorney appending copies of the Board’s revaluation order, with the attorney noting that the order had been signed by only two commissioners.

In opposition to the Townships’ motions, the Board submitted the certifications of Margaret M. Nuzzo, the Burlington County Tax Administrator, who stated that the Board is authorized to have five members, and had five members in 2006. Since then, one member (presumably Ms. Nuzzo herself) resigned to become the County Tax Administrator, and two other members retired as of January 1, 2008. She also stated that only the Governor is authorized to nominate county board members, who are appointed with the advice and consent of the Senate. See N.J.S.A. 54:3-2. No additional appointments had been made to the Board, leaving the Board with only two members at the time the motions were heard.2

[143]*143Ms. Nuzzo stated that the Attorney General issued informal advice to the Board in 2008, advising it that the Board could function with two members. The Board has relied on this advice since 2008 to perform its statutory duties by the required deadlines. Finally, Ms. Nuzzo certified that the Board has ordered several other municipalities to undertake revaluations over the past few years and that, in addition to the two orders challenged by these motions, the Board ordered four other revaluations in 2008. There are nine revaluations currently in progress for implementation in 2010 and one for 2011.

The Board also submitted the certifications of Patricia Wright, the Assistant Director of the Division of Taxation (“Division”) for Property Administration, who stated that she has had oversight responsibilities for revaluation orders since 2000, and was responsible for overseeing the processing of the revaluation orders from the Board during 2008. Ms. Wright stated that when the Board submitted its orders to the Division in May 2008, she had the information prepared for the Director to evaluate whether or not to approve the orders. The Division investigated, reviewed and analyzed the pertinent statistics from statistical fact sheets developed by the Division, one specifically for Hainesport Township and the other specifically for Mount Laurel Township. According to Ms. Wright, the data on the whole showed that each Township lacked uniformity and did not conform to the assessment standard of 100% of true value, thereby supporting the decisions of the Board to order revaluations for both Townships. The Director reviewed that data, agreed that the revaluations were justified and approved the Board’s orders.

The Townships initially relied upon N.J.S.A. 54:3-2, which, as amended by L. 2005, c. 44, § 1 provides that the Board is to be composed of five members,3 and further provides that, “at no time shall more than three members belong to the same political party.” They also asserted that by statute, N.J.S.A. 54:3-25, a quorum consists of three members. That statute provides:

[144]*144A majority of the members of the board shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, and an adjustment agreed to by such majority shall be taken to be the action of the board.
[N.J.S.A. 54:3-25],

The Townships contended that the quorum statute should be read so that a majority of the authorized membership of the Board, including positions currently vacant, constitutes a quorum. In support of this reading, they relied on the following language contained in In re Appeal of Monroe Township, 16 N. J.Tax 261 (Tax 1996):

During the hearing process counsel for Monroe moved to have three of the five county tax commissioners recuse themselves to avoid an alleged appearance of impropriety. The three commissioners acquiesced in Monroe’s request leaving only two commissioners to determine the 2,443 appeals. Since N.J.S.A.

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25 N.J. Tax 138, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hainesport-township-v-burlington-county-board-of-taxation-njtaxct-2009.