Title: Couse v. Town of Leicester

State: vermont

Issuer: Vermont Supreme Court

Document:

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to motions for reargument under V.R.A.P.
40 as well as formal revision before publication in the Vermont Reports.
Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Vermont Supreme
Court, 111 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05602 of any errors in order
that corrections may be made before this opinion goes to press.


                                No. 90-013


Fred and Kathleen Couse                      Supreme Court

     v.                                      On Appeal from
                                             Property Valuation
Town of Leicester                              and Review Division

                                             June Term, 1990


Wayne W. Potter, Chair

Fred A. Couse, pro se, Clinton Corners, New York, plaintiff-appellant


PRESENT:  Allen, C.J., Peck, Gibson, Dooley and Morse, JJ.


     GIBSON, J.   Taxpayers appeal from a determination of the State Board
of Tax Appeals setting their property in the Town of Leicester grand list at
$112,000.  We reverse and remand.
     Taxpayers' sole issue on appeal is the Board's failure to apply the
correct equalization ratio to the fair market value of their seasonal
residence on Lake Dunmore.  As we have pointed out, a property's listed
value should be determined from an equalization ratio calculated as the sum
of the listed values of the comparable properties, divided by the sum of the
fair market values of these properties.  Alexander v. Town of Barton, 152
Vt. 148, 155-56, 565 A.2d 1294, 1298 (1989).
     Taxpayers argue that the Board determined its equalization ratio on
too limited a sample of comparables, using the same three properties it
considered for initial valuation and ignoring eleven properties proposed as
comparables by the Town before the Board of Civil Authority and by the
taxpayers before the State Board.
     In calculating an equalization ratio, the set of comparables used for
initial valuation will generally suffice to meet the constitutional mandate
of fairness embedded in 32 V.S.A. { 4467.  See Kachadorian v. Town of
Woodstock, 144 Vt. 348, 351,