Jaydor Corp. v. Millburn Township

17 N.J. Tax 378
CourtNew Jersey Tax Court
DecidedApril 20, 1998
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 17 N.J. Tax 378 (Jaydor Corp. v. Millburn Township) 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
Jaydor Corp. v. Millburn Township, 17 N.J. Tax 378 (N.J. Super. Ct. 1998).

Opinion

SMALL, J.T.C.

In this case I am called on to determine the proper application of discrimination relief under N.J.S.A 54:51A-6 (L.1973, c. 123, commonly known as chapter 123), when the assessment of only one parcel in a multiparcel, single economic unit is challenged.

For 1997, the tax assessment of Block 1005, Lot 3, with a street address of 16 Bleeker Street, in Millburn, was as follows:

Land $ 766,600
Improvements 2,908,400
Total $3,675,000

The plaintiff took an appeal from that assessment to this court pursuant to N.J.SA 54:3-21. After a trial, I concluded that the property was overassessed, applied discrimination relief provided by chapter 123, and reduced the assessment to:

Land $ 766,600
Improvements 2,407,000
Total $3,173,600

This matter is before me on defendant Millburn’s post-judgment motion for reconsideration, pursuant to R. 1:7-4. See R. 8:7 and R. 8:10 with respect to motions brought pursuant to R. 1:7 — 4 in •the Tax Court. The sole basis for defendant’s motion is the application of discrimination relief provided pursuant to chapter 123. The facts, and this court’s findings of fact, are not in dispute.

The subject parcel, the assessment of which was appealed, is one of five parcels owned by plaintiff, located in Springfield and Millburn Townships. Those parcels are described in the table which is found at the end of and is an integral part of this opinion.

After a trial, in a bench opinion on February 5, 1998, I determined that (1) the five separately assessed parcels comprised a single economic unit, and (2) the fair market value of the entire economic unit was $7,325,000. The latter finding was based on an analysis of comparable sales of improved property and of income of comparable properties and a reconciliation of those two deter-[381]*381ruinations. At this time, neither party challenges or asks me to reconsider these two findings.

Subsequent to my determination of value for the entire economic unit, I was obliged to determine whether the taxpayer was entitled to discrimination relief pursuant to chapter 123. See Passaic Street Realty Assoc., Inc. v. Garfield, 13 N.J.Tax 482 (Tax 1993). Defendant challenges the way in which I applied the chapter 123 test for discrimination.

At trial, the only evidence of value presented for the unimproved parcels was a supplemental report and the testimony of plaintiffs expert. The expert concluded that the value of the vacant land involved in the economic unit, which constitutes the subject property, was $300,000 per acre. I found that the sliver property, one of three Millburn properties, had insignificant value. I found that the value of the second Millburn parcel was $300,000, and that the value of the two Springfield parcels was $264,000, for a total of $564,000.1 I then subtracted that figure from the gross value of the single economic unit to arrive at a value of $6,761,000 for the subject property. For 1997, Millburn’s chapter 123 ratio was 46.94%, with an upper limit of 53.98%. Comparing the value of the subject property to the assessment of the subject property yielded a ratio of 54.35%, which fell outside the chapter 123 corridor. Accordingly, I multiplied the value of the subject parcel ($6,761,000) by Millburn’s chapter 123 ratio (.4694) to arrive at a proper assessment for the appealed property for 1997 ($3,173,613). See, generally, Passaic Street Realty, supra, 13 N.J.Tax at 485-86.

[382]*382Millburn Township challenges that calculation and asserts that, since the property was valued as a single economic unit, I was obliged to test that valuation against the aggregate of the assessments of the five parcels constituting the economic unit. That calculation is straightforward when applied to the Millburn properties. Millburn suggests that, in considering the Springfield properties, I could calculate an imputed assessment by (1) taking the original 1997 assessment, (2) dividing it by Springfield’s chapter 123 ratio to get an imputed fair market value, and (3) multiplying that fair market value by Millburn’s chapter 123 ratio for a surrogate assessment, with a comparable chapter 123 ratio (what the Springfield property assessment would have been if determined by Millburn’s assessor). Performing these calculations results in an aggregate ratio which falls within Millburn’s chapter 123 corridor for 1997 and leads to the conclusion that there should be no reduction in assessment of the appealed subject parcel.2 In other words, since the aggregate fair market value and the aggregate assessments fall within the chapter 123 corridor, no adjustments to any of the five separate assessments need to be made, and in particular, no adjustment to the appealed assessment should be made.

As authority for its proposed calculation, Millburn relies on three cases, Purex Corp. v. Paterson, 8 N.J.Tax 121 (Tax 1986), Mobil Oil Corp. v. Greenwich Tp., 9 N.J.Tax 123 (Tax 1986), and Atlantic City v. Ginnetti, 17 N.J.Tax 354 (Tax 1998), approved for publication April 16, 1998.

In Purex, supra, Judge Kahn held that a taxpayer, having appealed the tax assessments of two parcels which constituted a single economic unit but which were separately assessed, could not [383]*383withdraw its appeal with respect to one of those parcels. It appeared from the facts that the parcel the plaintiff-taxpayer wanted to withdraw was substantially underassessed. The other parcel, the appeal the taxpayer wished to maintain, appeared to have been overassessed. Despite R. 8:3-9, which provides that “a matter may be withdrawn at any time ...” Judge Kahn ruled that R. 1:1-2 permitted him to relax or dispense with the rules in the interest of justice. He concluded that permitting the withdrawal would cause litigation gamesmanship and would lead to an inequitable result, namely, that the underassessed parcel would remain underassessed, while the taxpayer might achieve a reduction in assessment for the overassessed parcel. He found that the allocation of values as between the parcels was an administrative function, not significantly different from the allocation of assessments between land and improvements. See In re Appeal of Kents, 34 N.J. 21, 34, 166 A.2d 763 (1961); Glen Wall Assocs. v. Wall Tp., 6 N.J.Tax 24, 29 (Tax 1983) (citing N.J.S.A. 54:4-26), rev’d, 99 N.J. 265, 491 A.2d 1247 (1985). Allowing cherry picking, or gamesmanship on the part of a taxpayer (ie., to appeal one but not all parts of a single economic unit) is not appropriate.

Nine months later, Judge Lario, in Mobil, supra, 9 N.J.Tax 123 (Tax 1986), in permitting the withdrawal of the appeal of one parcel, stated:

On appeal of assessments, which have been determined to comprise a single economic unit it is immaterial whether an appeal of the assessments of one of the lots comprising the economic unit has been withdrawn.

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