Waterbury v. O'Loughlin

2 Citing cases

  1. Empire Estates, Inc. v. Stamford

    147 Conn. 262 (Conn. 1960)   Cited 19 times

    Section 1734 of the 1949 Revision (as amended, General Statutes 12-55) provided that "in each case of any increase of valuation above the valuation of such property in the last-preceding grand list, [the assessors] shall give written notice, in person or by mail, of such increase, to the party whose list or valuation is so changed." Municipalities have no powers of taxation other than those specifically given by statute, and strict compliance with the statutory provisions is a condition precedent to the imposition of a valid tax. Rocky Hill Incorporated District v. Hartford Rayon Corporation, 122 Conn. 392, 403, 190 A. 264; Waterbury v. O'Loughlin, 79 Conn. 630, 632, 66 A. 173; New Britain v. Mariners Savings Bank, 67 Conn. 528, 532, 35 A. 505. The statutes relating to the assessment of property for taxation and to the duties of assessors comprise chapter 86 of the 1949 Revision (General Statutes, c. 203). `It is clear from these enactments that the duties of assessors are prescribed with particularity. The manner in which real estate is to be described and assessed is explicitly set out. Failure of the assessors to list real estate in a manner conforming to the statutes will result in an invalid assessment and prevent recovery of the tax based on it. Hamden v. New Haven, 91 Conn. 589, 595, 101 A. 11; Hellman v. Burritt, 62 Conn. 438, 440, 26 A. 473. The power of assessors to alter assessments exists only during the lawful period for the performance of their duties, before the lists are completed and filed.

  2. Jenkins v. Reichert

    125 Conn. 258 (Conn. 1939)   Cited 18 times

    truck used upon this and other jobs was registered in the name of the wife and included, with a pleasure car admittedly owned by her, in her town tax list for 1935, 1936, and 1937, as was a tractor in the list for 1935, plaintiff's testimony that she paid him some money when he was working on another, previous job, and admission that she had signed or indorsed a note or notes of her husband payable to a grain company, but which, she testified, without contradiction, were for oil for a furnace, apparently in the home. Although evidence was introduced by the defendants, including a receipted bill in Frederick's name, for the truck in question, that he was its sole owner, and that the truck item in the tax lists was written in by one of the assessors, the jury were justified in accepting the registration and tax lists as sufficient basis for a finding of ownership by Mrs. Reichert. Dunn v. Santamauro, 119 Conn. 307, 308, 175 A. 913; Chouinard v. Wooldridge, 102 Conn. 66, 70, 127 A. 908; Waterbury v. O'Loughlin 79 Conn. 630, 633, 66 A. 173; Union School District v. Bishop, 76 Conn. 695, 698, 58 A. 13. However, granting this, and attributing to the other evidence the effect most favorable to the plaintiff, we regard it as inadequate to afford the indicia of a partnership relation necessary to establish it by any of the legitimate tests. As the trial court pointed out in the charge, the defendants being husband and wife, acts and circumstances between them have not the significance which could attach to them if between strangers and even if the jury found that the wife was the owner of the truck and that she made the payment to the plaintiff which he claimed, those facts are not enough, in themselves, to prove that she was a business partner with her husband, or to enable the jury to infer therefrom that there was such a relationship between them. Examination of the evidence does not disclose, nor does the plaintiff point out, other facts which, added to these, would enable the jury reasonably to find that the wife was a