PEOPLE ex rel. ENO v. TAX COMMISSIONERS OF NEW YORK

PEOPLE ex rel. ENO v. TAX COMMISSIONERS OF NEW YORK. N. Y. Supreme Court, First Department; Special Term and Chambers, 1881. Taxes.—Certiorari. A certiorari to review proceedings of tax commissioners should not require the return of records not affecting the particular property of the relator. Facts affecting other property relied on as showing disproportionate valuation, should be left to be shown by evidence. Motion to quash writs of certiorari. The writs called for the production of: first, the annual record of the assessed valuations of real estate for 1880 ; second, the assessment rolls of 1880 ; third, all papers upon which applications for reduction of assessments were made during 1880. It appears from the moving affidavits that the annual record, &e., &c., consisted of thirty-one books of from sixty to four hundred pages each, varying in size from eighteen to thirty-six inches square, and containing altogether the descriptions of 152,400 pieces of real estate; and that to copy them, in order to return it as directed by the writs of certiorari, would require a force of at least twelve copyists, working steadily for one month, at an expense of $1,500 ; and that to return the applications for the reduction of assessments, which during 1880 amounted to 2,500, consisting of complaints, affidavits, statements, maps, diagrams and comparisons, relating to property all over the city, would require a further outlay of labor and money, equal, perhaps, to that needed to return the annual record just mentioned. George P. Andrews, Assistant to the Counsel to the Corporation, for the motion. George Zabriskie, opposed. [MAJORITY — Cullen, J.] Cullen, J. This proceeding is anomalous by the statute. Evidence can be taken after the return is made ; and all the facts, to show an unfair and disproportionate valuation of the relator’s property, can be made to appear by evidence more satisfactorily than by any return. The writ in its present form would cast an intolerable burden on public officers and expense on the city. Motion granted, with leave to relator to obtain a new writ or amend the present one, so that the respondents may be required to return the record and documents directly affecting this particular property.