The Appellate Tax Board allowed the appellees' motion to dismiss. He testified that there was no slip in the box on Saturday morning indicating that there was any registered mail for the city, but that there was such a slip in the box on Monday morning, October 3, 1938, and that he got this registered mail, which apparently contained the application in question, and delivered it to the assessors on that morning. This messenger went to the post office on three occasions on Saturday morning, October 1, 1938, taking all the mail that was in the box on each occasion. There was evidence that when there was registered mail for the city this mail was not put in the box that a slip was put in the box which would be taken to the registered mail window, given to the clerk, and the registered mail would then be delivered to the city messenger. The city had a box at the post office and it was the duty of a city messenger to take the mail from this box and distribute it among the municipal offices to which it was addressed. The appellant's agent then went to the post office where he mailed the applications, registered, in an envelope properly addressed to the assessors. 4, Section 10), in order that the citizens would have a better opportunity of repairing the damage incurred by the hurricane of September 21, 1938. There was evidence that the hours were in conformity with the request of the Governor that daylight saving time be extended for one week after Sunday, Septem(when it would end as provided by G.L.
The agent was informed that the various municipal offices of Quincy closed at 4:30 daylight saving time. There was evidence that an agent of the appellant went to the office of the assessors in Quincy at about thirty-five or forty minutes after three o'clock, standard time, on the afternoon of Friday, September 30, 1938, for the purpose of delivering a number of applications for abatement of the taxes assessed upon various parcels of real estate owned by the appellant that the office was closed for the day, no assessor or any clerk was then present, and the janitor, who was busy cleaning the office, declined to accept the applications.
This is an appeal from a decision of the Appellate Tax Board dismissing a petition of the Old Colony Railroad Company for the abatement of a tax upon its property in Quincy for 1938. 59, as amended byġ87, was immaterial on the question whether application was made within the time required by the statute where it appeared that the taxpayer, upon finding the office closed, resorted to registered mail and did not attempt personal delivery on October 1, which was a Saturday, and that the application was not received by the assessors until October 3.ĪPPEAL from a decision by the Appellate Tax Board. September 30 when a taxpayer sought to deliver an application in writing for an abatement under Section 59 of G.L.
That the office of assessors of taxes may have been improperly closed on a 187, by personal delivery or by service by an officer or through the mail, his right to have his application considered is lost unless he proves that the application was received by the assessors or at their office within the time prescribed by the statute.Ī finding by the Appellate Tax Board that an application for an abatement of a real estate tax, mailed by registered mail on September 30, was not received by the assessors until after October 1 required a dismissal of the petition for abatement. While it is optional with a taxpayer whether he shall make his written application to assessors for an abatement under Section 59 of G.L. 187, that one seeking abatement of a tax on real estate shall apply in writing to the assessors on or before October 1 of the year to which the tax relates is not merely a matter of limitation but is an integral part of the right, and nonobservance of that requirement destroys the right. Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.
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