Hovbilt, Inc. v. Township of Howell

GARIBALDI, J.,

dissenting.

I agree with the Court that the Correction of Errors statute, N.J.S.A. 54:51A-7, need not be “narrowly circumscribed.” Ante *623 at 618, 651 A.2d at 87. I farther agree “that mistakes in assessments that are indisputable, and cannot plausibly be explained on the basis of an exercise of judgment or discretion by the assessor or his or her staff, are within the category of mistakes that can be corrected under the statute.” Ante at 618, 651 A.2d at 87. However, I part with the Court insofar as I find that the Howell Township Tax Assessor’s Office did make such a mistake in losing or negligently misplacing Hovbilt, Inc.’s (Hovbilt’s) application for farmland assessment. Accordingly, I would reverse the Appellate Division judgment. I would hold that the Correction of Errors statute entitles Hovbilt to have the Assessor’s Office deem Hovbilt’s farmland-assessment application timely filed.

I

The Court has thoroughly set forth the history and eases interpreting the Correction of Errors statute. Ante at 604-616, 651 A.2d at 80-86. In 1979, the Legislature revised the statute to substantially its present form. L.1979 c. 44; L.1979 c. 114. In the statement attached to the bill that was subsequently adopted, the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee explained: “The process was established to permit a timely correction of administrative errors, avoiding the need for a formal appeal to be processed. It is not intended that this process be used for settlement of challenges of an assessors [sic] opinion as to value * * Senate Revenue, Finance and Appropriations Committee, Statement to Senate Bill No. 1103, at 2 (Sept. 18, 1978) (emphasis added).

The errors that are correctable under the statute are objective errors — ones that, on the basis of simple proofs, the trial court could reasonably find occurred. Thus, in the case of a mathematical error, a taxpayer would merely have to submit the assessor’s worksheets for the matter to be decided. By the same token, the statute does not allow correction of subjective errors, such as valuation decisions by an assessor. Because correction of those *624 types of errors requires review of the many factors that go into an assessment, the statute’s special, extended statute of limitations does not apply: subjective errors are more fairly reviewed closer in time to the assessor’s decision-making process.

Hence, the question in the case at bar is whether an assessor’s losing or misplacing of an application is the kind of “mistake in tax assessment,” or “administrative error,” that the Legislature intended the statute to cover. Under the specific facts of this ease, I find that the mistake of the Assessor’s Office is correctable under the statute.

II

The only witness at trial, Russell Hedden, Hovbilt’s Vice President of Real Estate, testified that Hovbilt’s property straddles two municipalities, Freehold and Howell Townships. He also testified that, for each of the tax years 1985 through 1990, both municipalities assessed the property as farmland on application by Hovbilt, pursuant to the Farmland Assessment Act of 1964, N.J.S.A. 54:4-23.1 to -23.23.

Hedden testified that in 1991 he timely filed Hovbilt’s farmland assessment applications in both municipalities. Freehold granted Hovbilt’s application; Howell did not. As the trial court found, the .reason Howell did not grant the application is that it was “lost, misplaced, misfiled, mishandled in some fashion by the tax assessor’s office.” Because of that mistake, the assessor — unaware that Hovbilt had filed the application — assessed the property at full market value. As a result, the valuation increased from $16,000 in 1990 to $556,300 in 1991, and the real-estate taxes increased by over 1000% (one thousand percent), from $695 in 1990 to $9,368 in 1991. In 1992, upon Hovbilt’s application, Howell once again assessed the property as farmland.' The 1992 valuation of $21,000 resulted in real-estate taxes of $401.

Hovbilt did not file a timely appeal of the erroneous 1991 assessment to the County Board of Taxation. Instead, it filed this *625 complaint seeking relief pursuant to the Correction of Errors statute.

Ill

Unlike the Court, I conclude that the Assessor’s Office’s loss of Hovbilt’s application is indeed the type of “administrative error” for which the Correction of Errors statute provides relief. Losing a form implicates administration, not discretion. Because it does not involve an assessor’s opinion or judgment, the loss of Hovbilt’s application is within the category of mistakes that the Legislature thought should be correctable more expeditiously than the formal appeal process allows. See Statement to Senate Bill No. 1103, supra, at 2.

Indeed, the loss of Hovbilt’s application is more plainly an administrative error than the “undebatable” mistake the Court cites as a “simple example” of mistakes correctable under the statute: an assessor’s mistaken impression that a vacant lot had improvements constructed on it. Ante at 616-618, 651 A.2d at 86-87. Such a mistake, the Court asserts, “ordinarily would not have occurred because of an assessor’s opinion, judgment, or exercise of discretion.” Ante at 618, 651 A.2d at 87. The loss of a farmland-assessment application never occurs because of an assessor’s opinion, judgment, or exercise of discretion.

Hence, the real gravamen of the Court’s holding is the ease of correction: errors correctable under the statute are those whose correction is “self-evident and non-discretionary.” Ante at 618, 651 A.2d at 87. Given the importance of predictability and finality in assessments, it is understandable that the Court insists on this “easily-corrected” caveat to the broadened standard it adopts today. It is also understandable that the Court does not say explicitly that the real test of eorrectability under the statute is ease of correction: for in that regard, the Court ignores the statute, under which it is type of error — not ease of correction— that determines whether or not a mistake is correctable.

*626 Moreover, the Court invites confusion in naming, as “the clearest examples” of correctable mistakes, “errors concerning undebatable physical attributes of the land or structures.” Ante at 616-618, 651 A.2d at 86-87. There are many such “undebatable” errors, including not only the misapprehension that property is improved, rather than vacant, but also misapprehension of the type of improvement — tool shed rather than a cottage — and misapprehension of lot size. Correction of many of such errors would not be “readily inferable or subject to ready calculation * * Ante at 618, 651 A.2d at 87. For example, the mere fact that an assessor undebatably relied on a map indicating that a 100-acre lot contained 200 acres does not lead to the ready calculation of the correct assessment. The correct assessment will not be simply half the original, mistaken assessment. Rather, arriving at the correct assessment will entail a whole new discretion-laden decision on the part of the assessor.

The Court ignores the facts in asserting that the relief Hovbilt seeks implicates a greater degree of judgment on the part of the tax assessor than would correction for an error concerning an undebatable physical attribute. Ante at 620-622, 651 A.2d at 88-89. To obtain a farmland assessment, a taxpayer who satisfies the substantive (farming) criteria of the Farmland Assessment Act need merely file an application with the tax assessor on a form prescribed by the Division of Taxation no later than August 1 of the preceding tax year, N.J.S.A 54:4 — 23.6(c); N.J.S.A. 54:4-23.13; and N.J.S.A. 54:4-23.14. Once the taxpayer files the application, the remaining procedures are simple, the Court’s assertions to the contrary notwithstanding. In Hovbilt’s case, in 1985 through 1990, and in 1992,' the assessor relied on the application to determine whether Hovbilt was entitled to farmland assessment. The Assessor’s Office does not suggest that, if Hovbilt prevailed, the property would have to be revalued for farmland assessment. Indeed, because no one from the Assessor’s Office testified, the record is devoid of support for the Court’s assertions that the relief Hovbilt seeks- is subject to calculation, and not readily inferred.

*627 Hovbilt was diligent and timely filed the required form; as the trial court found, the Assessor’s Office lost it. Given those facts, Hovbilt is entitled to the relief it seeks: a finding that Assessor’s Office made an administrative “mistake[ ] in assessment ] that [is] indisputable, and cannot plausibly be explained on the basis of an exercise of judgment or discretion.” Ante at 618, 651 A.2d at 87.

I would reverse.

Justice POLLOCK joins in this opinion.

For affirmance — Chief Justice WILENTZ and Justices CLIFFORD, HANDLER, O’HERN and STEIN — 5.

For reversal — Justices GARIBALDI and POLLOCK — 2.