Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-18
.LEV|ES OF DORLAND
|. LAW TO CONTINUE
Only Restricted Refunds Are
Planned Despite Many
Cancellation Requests.

collation. of Borland law assessments at
this time, their mail this morning was
flooded with requests from property
of assessments or for return of money
paid to satisfy assessments under the
Law.
Daniel E. Garges, secretary Of the
Board of Commissioners, gazed at the
pile of correspondence and decided to
answer 1t all by form letter, of which
several thousand copies have now been
mimeographed. The letter states that
the taxpayers application has been
forwarded to the corporation counsels
Office and informs the taxpayer that
assessments will be Cancelled only in
cases similar to those already ruled upon
by the Court of Appeals
Decision Reached Yesterday.
The Commissioners reached their de-
cision not to order cancellation of all
Borland law assessments late yesterday
| after long session with their legal
| adviser, Corporation Counsel William
w. Bride. The Commissioners an
nounced their decision in a written
!
THE Commissioners feel that the
| general purposes of the Borland law
are good.
There are special benefits ACQUIRING
to AUDITING property owners properly
| aSsesSable to such owners.
The Commissioners have been adj
vised by the corporation counsel that
the recent decision of the Supreme
Court of the United States in refusing
writs of certiorari in the Borland law
cases are not conclusive except in cir
| cumstances based upon like statements
of facts, and further that the Borland
| law is operative in all other classes OF
cases. Under these conditions, the en-
| forcement of the law must continue
| until it Is changed by Congress or
further limited by judicial decisions.
Assessments made must remain in
| force and no cancellations or recon-
| mendations for refunds will be made at
this time, except in accordance with
! decided cases. A new law or the
| amendment of the present law to meet
the decisions will be asked Of Congress.
The corporation counsel, upon his
J recommendation, has been directed to
| prosecute the Dodge case in the Court
of Appeals, that court not having
spoken upon the law as applied to the
state Of facts therein"
One Assessment Cancelled.
The case of Crosby ct al. VS.. Dodge,
referred to in the Commissioners de-
cision, involves a regular rectangular
lot with 50-foot frontage and depth
of 226 feet on B street northeast near
Maryland avenue. An assessment was
levied against this lot under the Bor-
land law to pay for the paving of B
| street. Across the street from this lot
there are other lots of irregular shape,
partly due to the proximity of Mary
land avenue. The lots have long 'front.'
ages in comparison with their respec-
tive depths. The owners Of these other
lots, who were also assessed under the
law, succeeded in having their assess
ments Cancelled on the ground that they
were ineQuitable.
This was in accordance with the de-
.cision of the Court of Appeals in SIM
liar cases holding that where lot has
an abnormally long frontage in COM
parison with its depth an assessment
on a front-foot basis is inequitable and
discriminatory. None of these condi-
tons applied to the Dodge lot which is
perfectly rectangular and has only
small frontage compared with very
great depth. The owner however, asked
the District Supreme Court to cancel
his assessment on the theory that If
other lots in the same block were ex-
cused from taxation 1t would be un-
fair to tax him under the Borland law.
Justice Jennings Bailey held the point
we'll taken and ordered the assessment
cancelled The Commissioners did not
appeal this decision to the Court of
Appeals but asked the United States
Supreme Court to review 1t along with
two other cases, which had been decided
in the Court of Appeals adversed to
the District. Last Monday the United
States Supreme Court refused to hear
the cases.
Appeal Is Pursued.
Yesterday Mr.. Bride recommended
that this case be argued in the Court
of Appeals. In a lengthy survey OF
Borland law history forwarded to the
Commissioners at the same time, Mr..
Bride stated, almost foregone con-
clusion" that the Court of Appeals
would decide the same way that the
District Supreme Court decided, but he
felt that 1t was proper to pursue the
appeal so that before going to Congress
for change in the law or for a new
law the Commissioners would be in a
position to say that they had done their
utmost to make the present law work
and had failed.
Mr.. Bride stated that If the Dodge
case is decided adversely to the District,
there will be practically no property
left which could be assessed under the
Borland law, as decision in the Dodge
case would remove the only remaining
class, consisting OF regular rectangular
lots of sizeable depth, which do not
now come under the decisions handed
down by the Court of Appeals.
There Is nothing in the report In the
a GfIOUpCffnf q n a To
take the place of the Borland act, but
two such suggestions have already been
made One was the recommendation in
Mr.. Bride annual report that the law be
repealed and its place be taken by in
creasing gasoline from 2 to cents per
gallon in the District.
Amendments Suggested.
The other was the draft of legisla-
ton drawn up by committee of which
Mr.. Bride was member, proposing the
re-enactment of the Borland law with
substantial amendments doing away
with the front foot basis of assessment
and making allowances for lots of irreg-
ular shape and those with long 'front.'
ages and shallow depth so that such
lots would not be Disseminated against
In levying assessments as at present
The gasoline tax, he said, would raise
about 81 100000 a year more than the
present tax. The return under the
proposed new legislation Is somewhat
speculative and nobody has advanced
an estimate of what it would
amount to-
Assessments under the Borland law
run from 100000 to 100000 per an
mum. II the law is abandoned it would
be necessary to find some means not
only OF taking care of the revenue
to be lost but also of repaying tax
payers who have paid their assessments
within the statutory period of three
years the money paid on the aSSllnnn-