Court Opinion

ID: 9756296
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 21:21:49.983367+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:18.487332
License: Public Domain

Grimes, J.,
dissenting: The question presented is whether plaintiffs may challenge by petition for writ of certiorari a tax abatement granted Olla, Inc. by the State Tax Commission.
*232The plaintiffs allege that the determination that the true value of the building was $2,850.00 was arrived at by a misapplication of the law, that it could not be reasonably made on the evidence, is so low as to amount to no valuation at all, and that the determination was “arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable, an abuse of discretion, or the result of gross mistake”.
It is contended by the plaintiffs who are taxpayers that they will be required to pay more than their fair share of the tax burden if the abatement is allowed to stand. They therefore assert a constitutional right enunciated nearly a hundred years ago in Edes v. Boardman, 58 N.H. 580, 587 (1879); Morrison v. Manchester, 58 N.H. 538, 549 (1879), and referred to more recently in Blogie v. State Tax Commission, 111 N.H. 246, 279 A.2d 603 (1971).
In Blogie, the court, relying upon Manchester v. Furnald, 71 N.H. 153, 51 A. 657 (1901), held that neither the town nor individual taxpayers were entitled to have the matter reviewed by the courts when the tax commission grants an abatement to an individual taxpayer. It was said that because the legislature had provided no appeal from an alleged excessive abatement, the remedy of other taxpayers for the injury of overtaxation was a petition for abatement of their own.
Blogie however did recognize that even in the absence of a statutory right of appeal this court will correct “errors and abuses” of the commission. The Furnald case recognized that a remedy may be had in the courts in abatement cases when errors of law are claimed. The court upheld the demurrer only “as the petition now stands” but left it to the superior court to determine whether to allow an amendment alleging facts which would make the petition sufficient.
In both Blogie and Furnald, the town and individual taxpayers sought de novo review in the courts of the factual question of the value of the property upon which the abatement was made. In Furnald, plaintiffs sought a writ of mandamus and in Blogie plaintiffs proceeded by way of a bill in equity. The form of action is “of no practical consequence”, the real question being whether the petition alleges errors which are correctable by the courts. Manchester v. Furnald, 71 N.H. at 157, 51 A. at 658. Plaintiffs in this petition for certiorari do not seek a de novo review of the factual determi*233nation of the tax commission. Instead the allegations of their petition enumerated above raise questions of “errors and abuses” which are reviewable by our courts. Cloutier v. State Milk Control Board, 92 N.H. 199, 202-03, 28 A.2d 554, 557 (1942); Opinion of the Justices, 98 N.H. 533, 104 A.2d 195 (1954); Boody v. Watson, 64 N.H. 162, 9 A. 794 (1886).
The petition in this case therefore supplies the essential elements which were lacking in Blogie and Furnald and entitle the plaintiffs to a hearing. Although they are not entitled to a de novo review of the facts, they are entitled to have the court consider the evidence to the extent necessary to determine whether the finding of the commission could reasonably be made and to rule upon the other questions of law raised by the petition and set forth above. Cloutier v. State Milk Control Board, 92 N.H. at 203, 28 A.2d at 557. The motion to dismiss should have been denied.
Duncan, J., concurred in the foregoing opinion.