51 Neb. 755 | Neb. | 1897
This action was brought by the Academy of the Sacred Heart against H. B. Irey, the treasurer of Douglas county, to enjoin the collection of alleged illegal taxes levied upon plaintiff’s property. Thg county treasurer appeals from the decree rendered against him.
Plaintiff is A corporation organized in 1882 for educational purposes, under and in pursuance of the provisions ■of sections 15 to 18, inclusive, of chapter 16 of the Compiled Statutes of this state. In the same year the lots described in the petition were donated and conveyed to plaintiff for the purpose of establishing a school for the education of girls and young ladies in the higher branches, and the corporation ever since has been the owner of the premises. Shortly after acquiring the property, plaintiff erected a five-story building on a portion of the lots, at a cost of over $100,000, and the same has hitherto been used solely for school purposes. The lots are all included in a single enclosure, and have been by plaintiff improved and beautified by the planting out thereon of several hundred trees and shrubs, by flower beds and the making of driveways and walks, artistically laid out. A portion of the lots have been used by plaint
Section 2, article 9, of the constitution provides: “The property of the state, counties, and íxiunicipal corporations, both real and personal, shall be exempt from taxation, and such other property as may be used exclusively for agricultural and horticultural societies, for school, religious, cemetery, and charitable purposes, xnay be exempted from taxation, but such exemption shall be only from general law.” In 1879, the legislature, in the mode above indicated, enacted that there should be exempted from taxation in this state, inter alia, such property as may be used exclusively for educational purposes. The language is as comprehensive as it is possible to use. The legislature has, in pursuance of the power conferred upon it by the constitution, exempted from the burdens of taxation property used exclusively for the purposes of education. The test appl ied by this court in First Christian Church of Beatrice v. City of Beatrice, 39 Neb., 432, was whether the property is used directly, immediately, and exclusively for one of the purposes enumerated in the statute creating the exemptions, in which case it was ruled that lots owned by a religious society, but not used for religious purposes, and entirely separate and distinct from that on which its church edifice is situated, are not exempt from taxation, notwithstanding it was the intention of the society in the future to build a church edifice on said property not so occupied. The doctrine of that case is not only sound, but it is supported by the decisions of the courts of last resort of many of the sister states.
Affirmed,