In re St. Lawrence Transmission Co.

137 Misc. 603, 244 N.Y.S. 508, 1929 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1127
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 4, 1929
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 137 Misc. 603 (In re St. Lawrence Transmission Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re St. Lawrence Transmission Co., 137 Misc. 603, 244 N.Y.S. 508, 1929 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1127 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1929).

Opinion

Alden Chester,

Referee. These several proceedings have been tried together. The proceedings for 1921, 1922 and 1923 were brought by the St. Lawrence Transmission Company as relator and the proceedings since that date were brought by the St. Lawrence Valley Power Corporation as relator, all covering the same real property, the corporate name of the first named relator having been changed to that of the last named relator prior to the assessment of 1924 but such change resulted in no change of interest or ownership.

In each of the eight proceedings the relator claims that the assessment is invalid, illegal, erroneous and incorrect, the main contention being that the assessment of relator’s property is unequal in that it was made at a higher proportionate valuation than the assessment of other property on the same roll.

In the years 1921, 1922, 1923 and 1924 the relator’s property was assessed at the same valuation and by the same description. The first five items upon the rolls of 1921, 1922, 1923 and 1924, assessed at a total of $1,200 in each year, and the first two items upon the rolls, of 1925, 1926, 1927 and 1928, assessed at a total of $700, are not matters of dispute in these proceedings. The controversy arises over the last item upon each roll which was assessed for the first four years at $550,020 and for the last four years at $550,050. It is upon this parcel that the dam and pipe line of relator have been constructed, and which parcel is described on the roll for each of said first five years and also on the roll for 1926 as follows: “ Extending on both sides of Racquette River. Bd. North by the North Town Line of the Town of Colton, St. Lawrence Co., Bd. East by the Highway leading from Potsdam to Colton, St. Lawrence Co., Bd. South by Colton jail, Colton, St. Lawrence Co., Bd. West by the Highway leading from Potsdam to Colton, St. Lawrence Co. and including the bed of the Racquette river within the above boundaries and the water rights appurtenant to or a part of the above described property. 246 3 /8 acres.”

In the rolls for the years 1927 and 1928 the description was materially changed, undoubtedly to meet the objection that the description on the rolls for the prior years included property not belonging to the relator.

During the years from 1919 to 1928, both years inclusive, there have been repeated changes in the individuals comprising the assessors of Colton as appears by the record in the proceedings for the various years.

A proceeding brought by the St. Lawrence Transmission Company against the assessors of Colton to review their assessment of 1919 was tried before me as referee and resulted in a report reducing to [607]*607$250,000 an assessment of $500,000 on the Colton Dam and Penstock ” hereinafter referred to. This report was adopted by the court and a final order or judgment in accordance therewith was entered. From this judgment the defendants took an appeal to the Appellate Division where the judgment was affirmed. (211 App. Div. 826.)

In the assessment for 1919 the assessors did not include any part of the value of the water power as appurtenant to the dam and penstock but did include water power as appurtenant to some of the other property mentioned in that assessment. In the proceedings for the years subsequent to 1919, on trial here, the value of the entire water power belonging to the relators in the town of Colton, as appurtenant to their dam and penstock there and to their other property included in such assessments, is the principal contention between the parties.

The relators claim also that in each of the years prior to 1927 the assessment is illegal because their property is erroneously described and that the description in the roll contains lands which were not owned by the petitioners.

The parties to the eight proceedings now being tried have stipulated in each proceeding many of the essential facts involved in it and a brief summary of these facts is hereinafter mentioned.

These relators are each public service corporations organized under the laws of New York. Prior to 1917 the St. Lawrence Transmission Company purchased certain riparian lands,' water rights and privileges appurtenant thereto in the town of Colton. Such riparian lands were of negligible value except for water power purposes. In the years 1917-1918 such company constructed upon said lands a concrete dam across the Racquette river in the town of Colton, which was approximately 400 feet in length over all, 21 feet in height and varied from 15 to 28 feet in thickness at its base. In the same years such company constructed a penstock or pipe line 13,092 feet in length extending overland from such dam to its power house situate downstream in the town of Parishville, only 5,778 feet of which was in the town of Colton. Such penstock or pipe fine was 12 feet in diameter and the part of it in Colton was constructed of wooden staves 3| inches in thickness bound by iron hoops from f of an inch to f of an inch in thickness placed at varying distances apart. Approximately 2,690 feet of such line in the towns of Pierrepont and Parishville are constructed of steel. The riparian lands, water rights and privileges, the dam and hydraulic works connected therewith, the penstock or pipe line, together with the power house, machinery and equipment constituted such company’s hydro-electric plant for the generation of electricity. The [608]*608total fall of the stream from the crest of the dam in Colton to the power house in Parishville is 284 feet/ of which 239 feet is in the town of Colton, that is eighty-four per cent of the entire fall is in Colton and sixteen per cent in Parishville. Based upon the stream flow records at this point on the Racquette river, the gross available power of the Colton plant for the average year for commercial usable purposes is 14,440 horsepower, and the amount of power at the north line of the town of Colton is 12,200 horsepower. These figures are horsepower years per year. There is approximately, 2,500 horsepower of primary or firm power, that is power available continuous!)' based upon the average flow for the lowest month and the balance of the power available is secondary surplus power, viz., power which is available for a fractional part of year only.

The ratio of the assessment and the fair market value of the property upon the assessment roll for each of the eight years in question, except the property of the relator, is fifty-five per cent and the stipulation provides that the referee may adopt that figure as the basis for his consideration of the evidence.

The actual cost of the dam and hydraulic works connected therewith in the town of Colton, constructed as aforesaid in 1917 and 1918, was $186,044.63.

The actual cost of the portion of the penstock or pipe line in the town of Colton, constructed in the years 1917-1918, was $282,539.97. This is the pro rata part of the entire part of the entire cost of the pipe line without taking into consideration, the fact that the cost per foot of such pipe line in the town of Colton would run about half the average cost per foot of the pipe fine outside the town of Colton.

The dam and hydraulic works connected therewith and the penstock or pipe fine were constructed during the great war. About the peak of prices prevailed. The work was performed at an unseasonable time. The concrete was poured in the winter'months. Embargoes on the purchase and shipment of material and delays in the delivery thereof existed. The scale of wages was exceptionally high.

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Bluebook (online)
137 Misc. 603, 244 N.Y.S. 508, 1929 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1127, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-st-lawrence-transmission-co-nysupct-1929.