Northern Pacific Railway Co. v. Benton County

Citations

• 87 Wash. 534

Syllabus

<p>Taxation—Assessment—Excessiveness—“Speculative Value”— Evidence—Sufficiency. The assessment of two hundred sections of railroad lands at from $2.86 to $1.91 an acre (fifty per cent of the cash value) is shown to be so grossly in excess of the fair cash value as to be arbitrary and made upon a fundamentally wrong basis, where it appears that it was dry grazing land, practically valueless and of no sale or market value, worth for grazing not exceeding $13 a section; and the assessed value, which did not rise to the dignity of speculative value or probability of value within the span of a lifetime, was confirmed below on an “inference” that the company had withheld the same from sale for a “definite purpose” regarding the lands, and because there could be no possible comparison of values on account of the withdrawal of government lands constituting the balance of the area in that locality; since other comparisons of value existed, and a withholding of the lands from sale by an owner adds nothing to its present taxable value.</p>