Case v. San Juan County

Citations

• 59 Wash. 222
• 109 P. 809
• 1910 Wash. LEXIS 1171

Syllabus

<p>Taxation — Assessments—Excessive Valuation. A valuation of $50,000 for the purposes of assessment for taxation, upon 276 acres of land, chiefly valuable for limestone deposits, is excessive and constructively fraudulent, and should be reduced to $15,000 where the assessor stated that he was unable to fix the value of mineral land unless it was tested or developed, the value did not exceed $3 to $5 per acre aside from the limestone, and the land had not been developed and a few years ago had sold for $10,000; and an offer of $50,000 made and refused is not a sufficient basis upon which to fix the valuation, where the offer was coupled with a condition that six or seven thousand dollars be expended in development work and the land be demonstrated to contain sufficient limestone to operate a cement plant of 1,000 barrels capacity per day for twenty-one years.</p>