The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1916-03-02
GRANGE PROPERTY
LEGALLY TAXABLE
SAYS COMM. C0RBIN
Reddine Board Gives Mixed
Decisions in Peck and
Luttgen Cases.

Redding, March 2.-Concludiag their
labors, on Tuesday the board of relief
rejected the petition of Redding
grange and gave mixed decisions upon
the Peck and Luttgen appeals In the
grange matter they had not procured
the advice of Tax Commissioner Cor
bin before acting although the COM
missioner gave his opinion on the case
a. few days ago in reply to a letter of
inquiry from Assessor Burr. In his
communication Mr.. Corbin said: ''Th1s
matter has come up at other times
and have conferred with the Attor-
ney generals Informally relative to It.
They have given verbal, informal
opinion that such organization
should not he considered solely as a
benevolent, literary or agricultural so
ciety, for they are essentially a secret
social organization with other added
features which would clearly y'br1ng
them under the law relative to the
taxation of property which they might
hold. The above is my personal view
and cannot in any way be taken as
binding opinion, either as coming from
myself or any attorney general. by
the qualification Mr.. Corbin undoubt-
edly means that like any other legal
question in dispute the issue is not
disposed of finally until 1T has been
passed upon by the supreme court OF
errors.
Altogether the relief board granted
made additions aggregating s11 1885,
Fully half the reductions, however, are
merely in correction of clerical errors
and therefore only apparent One item
of 81, 200, representing the property of
]. A Guillame had been duplicated
on the abstract and another of $1,000,
representing the buildings of G. A.
Cornell, found it's way into the alb
stracts through having been wrongly
listed. In the matter of that part of
= - -
farm which is listed to Senator Peck
the, assessors had reduced the assess
ment from $3s42o to $2,745 and the re-
lief board did not change the figures.
In the assessment of Laura 3. Peck,
his wife, which the assessors cut down
to SIS, 250 from $22. 500, the relief board
made a further reduction of s., $50. On
her buildings they made an addition
of $500. In the case of Commodore
Lu1tgen the relief board granted re-
duction Of $1.75O on land and made an
increase on buildings of $3.50. The
assessors cut down tire previous VAL
uation. of the buildings by about
$4,000, SO that something more than
one-half- Of this reduction was restored
by the relief board. Whether NTessrs.
PECK and Luttgen will accept these re-
visions or go to the courts in an effort
to secure a further scaling down is
now the question They gave notice
last week that in cas4 they felt the
action fof the board to be oppressive
hey would seek judicial relief. IF
lawsuits are brought and tried out the
ultimat e result VIII probably be a net
loss to- k5le town. even if the decisions
are ksfs towns favor.
The Dther reductions made by the
Banks, $3.50 on bniEdings; Irving J.
Banks. $50 on land; Beach Baldwin,
$50 on house; Philander Ferry, $500;
Elmer T. Field, $500 on dwelling; Will
liam Mueller, 1855 oxen listed by
mistake; James r. OImstead, $50 on
ON barn: Paul Rasmussen, $3.50: H. F.
Rogers 800; E. M. Sanford, 5000 on
dwelling; 6. o. Sanford, 500 on auto;
Lemuel Sanford, $500 on land; Cor
neha Talmage. $500 on dwelling; Seth
Todd estate, $3.50. on land
Additions were as follows: May
Adams $3.50; A. G. Barnett, $3.50 on
land; Howard Luther, $165 on land;
Jennie Read, $50.
The burning of J. B. Sanford's barn
last Saturday has revived the frebug
scare and intensified the general de-
sire for the apprehension of the Grim
ina1 or criminals. That one person set
all the local incendiary fires of the
past three years is beginning to be
doubted, but the Likelihood of detec-
ton seems as remote as ever. OF the !
three fires suffered by Judge Sanford
two, and perhaps all, almost certainly |
had an fncendiary origin. The Judge
has no known enemies and the only
possible clue left in any of the cases
was the very slight one afforded in the !
latest case by the seeming marks of
an augur bore on the upper part of a |
sill at the corner of the barn where
the fire first appeared. Any detective
who succeeded in running down the
criminal with only this clue as a start |
ing point would certainly be acclaimed
q,