Lehigh Valley Coal Co. v. Northumberland Co. Commissioners

Citations

• 250 Pa. 515
• 95 A. 712
• 1915 Pa. LEXIS 980

Syllabus

<p>Taxation — Valuation- — -Appeals—Practice, G. P. — Evidence— Proper method of fixing value — Reversal-.</p> <p>1. Where appeals are taken to the Court of Common Pleas from decisions of county commissioners fixing the valuations of tracts of land for purposes of taxation, the proceedings are de novo and the facts must be found and the law applied just the same as if the litigation was between private parties. The judge who hears the case, sitting as a chancellor, is clothed with the powers of a court to hear and determine the issues involved, subject to the rules of practice and of law applicable to other hearings of an analogous character.</p> <p>2. The method of procedure in such case is for the taxing authorities to make out a prima facia case by the introduction in evidence of the assessment of record in the office of the county commissioners as approved by the board of revision, together with such other hooks and data as may he on file relating to the valuation of the tracts of land in question. If the evidence shows that the hoard of revision acted arbitrarily, or without sufficient reliable information or evidence, or without a substantial basis to justify their decision, the prima facia case will be rebutted and should be go treated' by the chancellor, whose duty it is to determine the questions in controversy in the light of the evidence offered and admitted at the hearing.</p> <p>3. The weight of the evidence should be decisive with the court and the burden is always on the litigants to introduce the evidence relied on to support their respective contentions.</p> <p>4. It is not for the court to fix the valuation of a tract of land at what he, as an individual might think it worth, and where from an inspection of the record it appeared that the court had fixed valuations without regard to the evidence submitted, the judgment was reversed, and the case sent hack for a valuation based upon the evidence.</p>