Shaker Square Co. v. Board of Revision

170 Ohio St. (N.S.) 369
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 9, 1960
DocketNo. 36159
StatusPublished

This text of 170 Ohio St. (N.S.) 369 (Shaker Square Co. v. Board of Revision) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shaker Square Co. v. Board of Revision, 170 Ohio St. (N.S.) 369 (Ohio 1960).

Opinion

Per Curiam.

The Moreland Courts Apartments were built by the Yan Sweringen brothers during the period of 1925 to 1929 and originally owned and operated by the Shaker Company, a subsidiary of the Yan Sweringen Company. The appellant strongly protests that it did not buy the apartments [370]*370but rather the stock of the bankrupt Shaker Company. The method of acquisition is not of importance, however.

In 1936, the Shaker Company went into bankruptcy, and in May 1949 the appellant, The Shaker Square Company, was incorporated and it acquired all the stock of the Shaker Company from the trustee in bankruptcy at public auction. The price paid for such stock (after adjustments for mortgage indebtedness and personal property) allocated to the Moreland Courts Apartments property resulted in a book value of $2,146,114, of which $465,708 was allocated to land and $1,680,406 to buildings.

Prior to an order by the auditor of Cuyahoga County, dated December 1,1952, increasing the assessed value of all real estate in Cuyahoga County by 25 per cent (see Cleveland Trust Co., Trustee, v. Board of Revision of Cuyahoga County, 163 Ohio St., 579, 127 N. E. [2d], 748), the assessed values of appellant’s land and buildings were land $180,100 and buildings $1,567,780, a total of $1,747,880. Under that order of the county auditor the assessed values of appellant’s land and buildings were increased for the years 1953 and 1954 to land $225,240 and buildings $1,959,720, a total of $2,184,860. No complaint was made by the appellant covering these two years. In 1955, the auditor of Cuyahoga County determined that the true value in money of this real estate was land $251,530 and buildings $2,884,930. In the proceedings which have culminated in this action here, the assessed land value has not been disputed. The auditor’s assessed building value of $2,884,930 was reduced by the Board of Revision of Cuyahoga County to $2,110,280. Appellant contends that the assessed value of these buildings should be $1,073,050.

Appellant, in its assignment of errors, makes seven specific contentions which are somewhat repetitive and overlapping but which may be summed up as follows:

The decision of the Board of Tax Appeals is unreasonable and unlawful in the following respects:

(1) The board disregarded and rejected the testimony of all the appellant’s witnesses;

(2) After excluding the testimony and evidence offered by appellant to prove that the valuation by the Board of Revision [371]*371was “grossly erroneous and intrinsically without weight or probative value” upon the ground that said valuation carried no presumption of correctness and could be given no weight in the proceeding, the Board of Tax Appeals thereafter adopted said valuation as establishing the true value of appellant’s buildings for each tax year;

(3) The adoption by the Board of Tax Appeals of such valuation figures of the Board of Revision without affording appellant any opportunity to submit testimony relative to them was an unconstitutional denial of due process of law.

Previous decisions of this court in proceedings of this type are too well known to require citation in this case. Certainly the Board of Tax Appeals has wide discretion in determining the credibility and weight of the testimony of witnesses - which appear before it. After carefully examining the record, this court finds nothing unreasonable or unlawful in the consideration given by the Board of Tax Appeals to the testimony of the witnesses who appeared for appellant, as set forth in the decision of the board. The cogent paragraph in that entry is as follows:

“On the basis of the record in this case and keeping in mind that the appellant has the burden of proving that the true value in money of the subject property is the value stated in the notices of appeal, the Board of Tax Appeals is of the view that it would be indulging in pure speculation if it valued appellant’s real property at a level other than that ascribed to it by the Cuyahoga County Board of Revision.”

Preceding this paragraph, the board found that appellant’s professional appraiser fixed a fair market or real value of the apartment buildings in the amount of $1,100,000, and that the professional appraiser employed by the Cuyahoga County auditor fixed the value in the amount of $1,873,000. (See Citizens Building Co. of Cleveland v. Board of Revision of Cuyahoga County, 141 Ohio St., 47, 46 N. E. [2d], 413.) The record discloses no other testimony as to the value of the buildings.

Section 5717.01, Revised Code, provides:

“An appeal from a decision of a county Board of Revision may be taken to the Board of Tax Appeals * * *. The county Board of Revision shall thereupon certify to the Board of [372]*372Tax Appeals a transcript of the record of the proceedings of the county Board of Revision pertaining to the original complaint, and all evidence offered in connection therewith. * * *

“The Board of Tax Appeals may order the appeal to be heard upon the record and the evidence certified to it by the county Board of Revision, or it may order the hearing of additional evidence, and it may make such investigation concerning the appeal as it deems proper.”

The record of the hearing before the Board of Tax Appeals discloses the following:

“Mr. Jackson: Am I correct in understanding that this being a hearing de novo that the findings of the Board of Tax Appeals and its decision do not have any presumptive validity and we have no additional burden to overcome ?

“Mr. Sawicki: I believe you are referring to the Board of Revision.

“Mr. Jackson: That is what I mean, the Board of Revision.

“Mr. Sawicki: That’s right. Their findings have no bearing on this particular hearing.

“Mr. Jackson: No weight?

“Mr. Sawicki: That is right. That is correct. * * *

ÍÍ* # •

“Q. Now, Mr. Blainey,-have you examined photostats of the appraisal side of the auditor’s appraisal cards as modified by the Board of Revision? A. Yes.

“Q. Do I correctly understand that those cards show for each building a replacement value heading and then a physical value, being the replacement value less the amount of physical depreciation allowed by the board, and then an actual value, which results from applying a further allowance for functional depreciation?

“Mr. Leddon:. I object to the question. What the cards show is not of any importance here at all. What we are after here is the true value in money of this property.

“Mr. Sawicki: Objection sustained.

“Mr. Jackson: I am sure this would be applicable and, therefore, may I simply make an offer to prove that this witness, if he were permitted to answer, would answer the fore[373]*373going question in the affirmative and would further testify that the total of such actual values on these cards is $2,110,280, which is identical with the assessed value of the buildings fixed by the Cuyahoga County Board of Revision? I just for the record make the offer of proof. * * *

it* * *

“Mr. Jackson: Pardon me. I object solely upon this ground, that I understand this is a hearing ele novo upon the complaint filed with the Cuyahoga County Board of Revision.

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Related

Hibschman v. Board of Tax Appeals
49 N.E.2d 949 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1943)
Citizens Building Co. v. Board of Revision
46 N.E.2d 413 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1943)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
170 Ohio St. (N.S.) 369, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shaker-square-co-v-board-of-revision-ohio-1960.