Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 66.djvu/590

 544 53 Stat. 1108. D. C. C o d e 472403. D. C. C o d e 472404. Petition for review.

Jurisdiction.

62 Stat. 928.

D. C. C o d e 47708 to 47-711, 472405. Board of Equali z a t i o n and Review.

PUBLIC LAW 4 9 3 - J U L Y 10, 1952

[66

STAT.

the Act of July 26, 1939, is amended by striking out from such section the words "under protest in writing". (b) Subsection (a) of section 4 of title IX of such Act is amended to read as follows: "(a) The decision of the Board may be reviewed by the court as hereinafter provided if a petition for such review is filed by either the District or the taxpayer within thirty days after the decision is rendered. Such petition for review shall be filed with the Board, and shall be in such form as the Board by regulation shall provide. Upon such review the court shall have the power to affirm, modify, or reverse the decision of the Board with or without remanding the case for hearing as justice may require. The court shall have the exclusive jurisdiction to review the decisions of the Board in the same manner and to the same extent as decisions of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in civil actions tried without a jury; and the judgment of the court shall be final, except that it shall be subject to review by the Supreme Court of the United States upon certiorari in the manner provided in title 28, United States Code, section 1254, as amended. The court is authorized to adopt rules for the filing of the record on review, the preparation of the record for review, and the conduct of the proceedings upon such review." (c) Subsections (a), (b), and (c) of section 5 of title IX of such Act are amended to read as follows: "(a) The Assessor and Deputy Assessor of the District and the board of all of the assistant assessors, with the Assessor as chairman, shall compose a Board of Equalization and Review, and as such Board of Equalization and Review they shall convene in a room to be provided for them by the Commissioners, on the first Monday of January of each year, and shall remain in session until the first Monday in April of each year, after which date no complaint as to valuation as herein provided shall be received or considered by such Board of Equalization and Review. Public notice of the time and place of such session shall be given by publication for two successive days in two daily newspapers in the District not more than two weeks or less than ten days before the beginning of said session. It shall be the duty of said Board of Equalization and Review to fairly and impartially equalize the value of real property made by the board of assistant assessors as the basis for assessment. Any five of said Board of Equalization and Review shall constitute a quorum for business, and, in the absence of the Assessor, a temporary chairman may be selected. They shall immediately proceed to equalize the valuations made by the board of assistant assessors so that each lot and tract and improvements thereon shall be entered upon the tax list at their value in money; and for this purpose they shall hear such complaints as may be made in respect of said assessments, and in determining them they may raise the valuation of such tracts or lots and improvements as in their opinion may have been returned below their value and reduce the valuation of such as they may believe to have been returned above their value to such sum as in their opinion may be the value thereof. The valuation of the real property made and equalized as aforesaid shall be completed not later than the first Monday of May annually. The valuation of said real property made and equalizad as aforesaid shall be approved by the Commissioners not later than July 1, annually, and when approved by the Commissioners shall constitute the basis of taxation for the next succeeding year and until another valuation is made according to law, except as hereinafter provided. Any person aggrieved by any assessment, equalization, or valuation made may within ninety days after October 1 of the year in which such

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