People ex rel. Queens County Water Co. v. Woodbury

67 Misc. 490, 123 N.Y.S. 599
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedMay 15, 1910
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 67 Misc. 490 (People ex rel. Queens County Water Co. v. Woodbury) 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
People ex rel. Queens County Water Co. v. Woodbury, 67 Misc. 490, 123 N.Y.S. 599 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1910).

Opinion

Blackmar, J.

This is a proceeding to review the action of the State Board of Tax Commissioners in assessing the special franchise of the Queens County Water Company in the borough of Queens at the sum of $275,000. The assessment is attacked on the grounds of overvaluation and of inequality. The proceeding was brought on for trial at Special Term upon the petition and return, and both the relator and the defendants offered evidence upon the issues [492]*492so joined. The return does not disclose the rule or method made use of by the commissioners in reaching their conclusion, and the issue of overvaluation is,' therefore, one of fact as to the value of the special franchise to be determined on the evidence presented.

The relator, while properly admitting in its elaborate brief that there is no method which must be exclusively used by the court in determining the value, has presented an argument based on the application of the so-called net earnings rule. It claims that the application of this rule shows that the intangible right had no value whatever and that, therefore, the value of the special franchise did not exceed the sum of $128,779.73, which was the value of the pipes and mains in the streets of Queens county.

The city of Hew York, intervening, has filed a brief claiming that the net earnings rule, “ if properly and justly applied,” shows that the value of the special franchise in Queens county including the tangible property in the streets is upward of $800,000.

The Attorney-General claims that the net earnings rule is inapplicable and is not a safe guide or any guide at all in determining the value of the special franchise; and that, as no other means of determination is presented to the court, the proceeding must be dismissed, because the relator has failed in overthrowing the presumption that the assessment is correct.

The net earnings rule is a method of determining the value of a special franchise by ascertaining its earning capacity. It is assumed to be worth that sum which, placed at interest at a determined rate, usually six or seven per cent., will produce the amount which the franchise earns. If the gross earnings of the company, the operating expenses, other proper charges against earnings, and the value of the tangible property be given, the value of the special franchise is the result of a purely mathematical computation.

The net earnings rule as formulated by the Court of Appeals in the Jamaica Water Supply Company Case, 196 N. Y. 39, is as follows:

“(1) Ascertain the gross earnings.

[493]*493“(2) Deduct the operating expenses.

“(3) Deduct a fair and reasonable return on that portion of the capital of the corporation which is invested in tangible property.

The resulting balance gives the earnings attributable to the special franchise. If the balance be capitalized at a fair rate we have the value of the special franchise.”

Both the relator and the city agree on the first factor, although the agreement is an appearance only. They differ in the items going to make up the second factor, and also as to the amount of the tangible property of the company which is the basis of the third factor.

(1) The relator claims that there should be deducted from the gross earnings the sum of $34,843.05 as depreciation of “ depreciable property ” for the year under consideration, while the city allows but $11,494.88. The relator’s evidence on this subject consists of estimates made by its engineer for a number of years showing an annual depreciation in the plant of five and seven-eighths per cent. The city’s evidence consists of an elaborate table in which physical depreciation is figured out with respect to the life of the different items of relator’s depreciable property. Tho difference in the result is principally due to the inclusion by the relator of functional depreciation or obsolescence whereas the evidence of the city is confined to physical depreciation only. So long as depreciation of property is a proper factor to take into account in determining the net earnings, I cannot see why the rule should not be applied as well to fxmetional as to physical depreciation. In both cases the property becomes valueless because no longer capable of being applied to the purposes for which it was designed. It would be a false system of accounting which did not take into consideration the destruction of the value of property from whatever cause, so long as that cause is in constant operation and can be foreseen with reason able certainty. A loss due to functional depreciation is incurred in the operation of the business and, therefore, should he charged as an expense of operation. City of Knoxville v. Knoxville Water Company, 212 U. S. 1. Machinery which to-day is sufficient for [494]*494its purpose may become scrap iron through the development of inventions; and so pipes and mains, sufficient for a system of water supply as it now exists, may become valueless through changes in the conditions under which it is used. Because an iron pipe will lie fifty years in the ground without disintegration, it does not follow that the pipe will be of value to the company for fifty years. The conclusion reached as the result of actual experience-seems to be more reliable. I am, therefore, inclined to approve the estimate of the relator as to the depreciation in preference to that of the city.

(2) Whether the rentals from the street hydrants repudiated by the city should be deducted from the gross earnings cannot be determined without knowing whether the city is liable therefor. It is evident that the relator does not wish a determination that the city is not liable, neither does the city desire a determination that it is; so neither party has presented evidence on the question. The relator has the burden of showing that the franchise was overvalued by the commissioners; and its contention as to this item, being unsupported by evidence, cannot be sustained.

(3) I think that the relator is wrong in deducting from its gross earnings the net amount earned by the Brooklyn contract. It is true that the water pumped into the mains for delivery to the borough of Brooklyn does not go through the pipes laid in the streets but it is a source of revenue from the invested capital. It is earnings from the sale of about one-half of the output of water obtained by the use of the land, the pumps and the plant; and, as these items of property must be allowed to produce a return to be deducted from the net earnings before determining the balance attributable to the special franchise, I think that the earnings from this source must be included in the computation.

(4) The item of $1,000 claimed by the -relator for uncollectible accounts, being less than one per cent., I think reasonable. On the other hand, I fail to see how the item of $1,800 for farming expenses can be called expenses of operating a plant for the distribution of water.

[495]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
67 Misc. 490, 123 N.Y.S. 599, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-ex-rel-queens-county-water-co-v-woodbury-nysupct-1910.