Case Law Summaries

Petrie Retail, Inc. v. Town of Secaucus

TAXATION; INTEREST—Even though a municipality may write one check for eight separate tax appeal settlements for a single taxpayer, the date of filing of each separate judgment is dispositive and the municipality is wrong when it claims no interest is due because its payment was made within 60 days after filing the last judgment.

• Opinion Date: February 21, 2003
• Real Property Law

Brae Associates v. Park Ridge Borough

TAXATION; FREEZE ACT—It is an unsettled question whether the common form of tax relief judgment allows a taxpayer to seek further assessment reductions during the “Freeze Act” years.

• Opinion Date: March 3, 2003
• Real Property Law

Tedesco v. Montclair Township

TAXATION; EXPERTS—The sales price of a property is not always indicative of its assessed value and the property owner’s explanation of how the sales price was reached is accorded little value in determining the “special” circumstances that yielded the lower sales price.

• Opinion Date: March 10, 2003
• Real Property Law

Center for Molecular Medicine and Immunology v. Township of Belleville

TAXATION; EXEMPTION—Where the occupant of county owned property would personally qualify for real property tax exemption, it doesn’t matter whether its occupancy is characterized as a long term ground lease (and hence equivalent to ownership) or as a short term space lease.

• Opinion Date: January 17, 2003
• Real Property Law

Southern Jersey Family Medical Centers, Inc. v. City of Pleasantville

TAXATION; EXEMPTION—An otherwise qualifying tax-exempt charity is not deprived of its right to a real estate tax exemption because the majority of its funding comes from governmental sources.

• Opinion Date: May 13, 2003
• Real Property Law

City of Long Branch v. Ohel Yaacob Congregation

TAXATION; EXEMPTION—A residence reasonably needed by a house of worship to support its religious purpose may still be exempt from real property taxes even if it does not, itself, qualify under the parsonage exemption.

• Opinion Date: December 15, 2003
• Real Property Law

Gotham Park Associates v. Borough of Carlstadt

TAXATION; ASSESSMENTS—Assessing property owners for roads in industrial areas while paying for similar roads in residential area out of general revenues is impermissibly discriminatory.

• Opinion Date: June 18, 2003
• Real Property Law

Marconi Mystic Island Marina, Inc. v. Little Egg Harbor Township

TAXATION—A taxpayer can’t present only evidence of sales of similarly used properties as proof that a municipal assessment is incorrect because the sales may have been forced sales and an explanation as to the comparability of the selected properties is needed to overcome the presumption that the tax assessor is correct.

• Opinion Date: January 24, 2003
• Real Property Law

Greate Bay Hotel and Casino v. City of Atlantic City

TAXATION—A county tax board has the discretion to transfer a tax appeal to the Tax Court.

• Opinion Date: March 11, 2003
• Real Property Law

Regent Care Center, Inc. v. Hackensack City

TAXATION—Adjusting an assessment for legitimate reasons is an appropriate exercise of a tax assessor’s duties, and it is not required that it be done as part of a district-wide revaluation or reassessment.

• Opinion Date: July 22, 2003
• Real Property Law