Kearny Town v. Director, Division of Taxation

11 N.J. Tax 232
CourtNew Jersey Tax Court
DecidedAugust 14, 1990
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 11 N.J. Tax 232 (Kearny Town v. Director, Division 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
Kearny Town v. Director, Division of Taxation, 11 N.J. Tax 232 (N.J. Super. Ct. 1990).

Opinion

HOPKINS, J.T.C.

The subject cases were consolidated because they involved identical challenges to the 1989 Director’s equalization table. That table is used in the apportionment of state school aid for the year 1990-1991, in accordance with N.J.S.A. 18A:7A-17 et seq. The appeals challenged the allegedly erroneous inclusion of an added assessment in the amount of $139,600,000 for railroad property located within the Kearny taxing district and known and designated as Block 284, Lot 21AE. That added assessment was canceled by the Hudson County Board of Taxation pursuant to its judgment dated December 27, 1988.

Director has moved to dismiss the complaints since they were filed approximately four months beyond the statutory filing period provided by N.J.S.A. 54:51A-4(c). In opposing the Director’s motion, plaintiffs argue that the Kearny mayor did not receive a certified copy of the table in accordance with N.J.S.A. 54:1-35.1; that the Director is estopped from raising the defense of untimely filing since communications between the treasurer of Kearny and the county tax administrator should be read to imply that the reduced assessment would be reflected in [235]*235the Director’s table of equalized valuations; that general powers of equity should permit this court to entertain the complaint because of the magnitude of the alleged error and, further, that the provisions of N.J.S.A. 54:51A-4(c) permits this court, on its own motion, to entertain jurisdiction at this time for the purpose of granting relief where the error alleged is of the magnitude here involved.

N.J.S.A. 54:1-35.1 requires that the Director, Division of Taxation, promulgate a table of equalized valuations to be used in the calculation and apportionment of distributions pursuant to the State School Aid Act. Such provision reads as follows:

On or before October 1 in each year the Director of the Division of Taxation, in the State Department of the Treasury shall promulgate a table of equalized valuations to be used in the calculation and apportionment of distributions pursuant to the State School Aid Act of 1954. Such table shall be deemed to have been promulgated on the day when the director shall have completed the delivery of a certified copy thereof to the Commissioner of Education and the mailing of a certified copy thereof to the municipal clerk of each municipality, to the secretary of each county board of taxation and, by certified mail, to the mayor or other chief executive officer of any municipality for which the equalized valuation so certified exceeds by 10% or more the equalized valuation determined for the preceding year. The table for each year and any revision thereof shall be kept as a public record in each office to which it is sent and in the office of the Director of Taxation.

Judicial review of the table is in accordance with N.J.S.A. 54:51A-4(c), which reads as follows:

The State equalization table promulgated pursuant to section 1 of P.L.1954, c.86 (0.54:1-35.1) may be reviewed by the tax court on complaint of any taxing district made within 45 days after its promulgation, or on its own motion, but such review shall not suspend the apportionment of school aid moneys. No change shall be made in the table except after hearing, of which five days’ notice shall be given by mail to the governing body of the taxing district. If, after the hearing, the tax court shall determine that the equalized valuation of any district or districts as fixed by the directors was erroneous, it shall revise and correct the equalization table. Such hearings, review and revisions shall be completed by January 30 next following the promulgation of the table. A certified copy of the revised and corrected table shall be transmitted to each official or board to whom the original table was required to be transmitted and also to the Director of the Division of Taxation. In any such proceeding, the director shall be entitled to be heard, and the assessment ratios as promulgated shall be presumed to be correct, and shall not be revised or modified by the tax court unless the complainant district shall present proof that upon all the evidence available such ratio or ratios could not reasonably be justified. [Emphasis supplied]

[236]*236Where the equalized valuation attributable to a taxing district exceeds the previous year’s equalized valuation by 10%, the Director is required, as a condition of its being promulgated, to mail or deliver a certified copy to the Commissioner of Education and “to the municipal clerk of each municipality, to the secretary of each county board of taxation and, by certified mail, to the mayor or chief executive officer of any municipality for which the equalized valuation so certified exceeds by 10% or more the equalized valuation determined for the preceding year.” N.J.S.A. 54:1-35.1.

In the subject case, the objective evidence shows that the clerk of Kearny received a copy of the promulgated table and that a certified copy was mailed to the Mayor of Kearny by certified mail, with the return receipt acknowledging delivery returned to the Director. Nothing has been introduced to the effect that such receipt was not acknowledged by the Mayor or an authorized agent for such acceptance. Any argument that N.J.S.A. 54:1-35.1 requires personal delivery to the mayor is without merit.

Plaintiffs’ argument that the Director is estopped from alleging a timely failure to file by virtue of the correspondence between the Kearny treasurer and the county tax administrator must fail since there has been no showing that the requisites for such claim have been met. It is well recognized that estoppel is properly invoked only where the party raising the claim reasonably relied to his detriment on the objective manifestations of his adversary, or an agent authorized to act on behalf of his adversary. L.S. Village, Inc. v. Lawrence Tp., 8 N.J.Tax 287, 296-297 (Tax Ct.1985). There has been no showing that the county tax administrator was the Director’s agent or had any authority to determine or recommend exclusion of the disputed assessment in the preparation of the table.

The request to have this court exercise its general equity powers to supersede Kearny’s statutory appeal period need not be addressed, since as shown, infra, the Tax Court’s discretion[237]*237ary powers are encompassed in plaintiffs’ last argument, in that the statute provides for such limited relief.

In the preparation of the table, it has been the practice of the Director not to take into consideration adjustments made by the various county boards with respect to added or omitted assessments. See Cherry Hill Tp. v. Director, Taxation Division, 119 N.J.Super. 256, 291 A.2d 28 (App.Div.1972). Such procedure was upheld based upon the breadth of the discretion reposed in the Director in formulating details of methodology in computing the table. The standard to be used in evaluating the Director’s methodology is whether the ratios “could not reasonably be justified.” Id. at 259, 291 A.2d 28.

As noted, N.J.S.A. 54:51A-4(c) provides that the table may be reviewed by the Tax Court on complaint of any taxing district “within 45 days after its promulgation,

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Bluebook (online)
11 N.J. Tax 232, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kearny-town-v-director-division-of-taxation-njtaxct-1990.