Matter of Metro. Life Ins. Co. v. Tax Comm'n of the City of New York

425 N.E.2d 877, 53 N.Y.2d 1050, 442 N.Y.S.2d 489, 1981 N.Y. LEXIS 2569

• Court: New York Court of Appeals
• Decided: June 11, 1981
• Status: Published

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Memorandum.

The order of the Appellate Division, First Department, should be reversed, with costs, and the proceeding remitted to that court for determination of the facts.

“The determination of market value essentially is a question of fact” (Grant v Srogi, 52 NY2d 496, 510). Similarly, the subsidiary question of whether capitalization of net income premised upon a single rather than a multiple tenant basis more accurately reflected the market value of the buildings in question was one of fact. That in mind, on the record here, it cannot be said that the determination of value by the trial court was erroneous as a matter of law.

We also note that, while the Appellate Division, no doubt because of the otherwise complete record here, elected not to remand the case to Special Term for its failure to have followed the injunction of subdivision 2 of section 720 of the Real Property Tax Law, ordinarily it is preferable that nisi prius comply with the requirements of that statute (cf. Lord v State of New York, 48 NY2d 711).

Chief Judge Cooke and Judges Jasen, Gabrielli, Jones, Wachtler, Fuchsberg and Meyer concur.

Order reversed, with costs, and matter remitted to the Appellate Division, First Department, for further proceedings in accordance with the memorandum herein.