124 Va. 142 | Va. | 1919
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is a proceeding for redress against alleged erroneous assessments of taxes, State and local, under sections 567, 568 and 571 of the Code. Smallwood Memorial Institute, claiming to be the equitable owner of certain real and personal property, the legal title to which was in Rosa E. Smallwood, and Rosa E. Smallwood and J. R. Pollard, trustees for Thelma Smallwood, made its application under the sections referred to, and secured the relief desired, and from the order granting such relief this writ of error was allowed upon the petition of the Auditor of Public Ac counts and the county of Surry.
“Buildings, with the land they actually occupy, and the furniture, furnishings, books and instruments therein, wholly devoted to educational purposes, belonging to, and actually and exclusively occupied and used by churches, public libraries, incorporated colleges, academies, industrial schools, seminaries, or other incorporated institutions of learning, including the Virginia Historical Society, which are not corporations having shares of stock or otherwise owned by individuals or other corporations; together with such additional adjacent land owned by such churches, libraries and educational institutions as may be xeasonbly necessary for the convenient use of such buildings, respectively; and also the buildings thereon used as residences by the officers or instructors of such educational institutions; and also the permanent endowment funds, held by such libraries and educational institutions directly or in trust, and not invested in real estate; provided, that such libraries and educational institutions are not conducted for profit of any person or persons, natural or corporate, directly, or under any guise or pretense whatsoever.
The exemption of this class of property accords with the accepted policy of this State for many years, but it is unnecessary to refer to the statutes antedating the present Constitution, because the question is controlled by the section just quoted, and its proper construction. It may be said in this case, as Buchanan, J., said in Commonwealth v. Lynchburg Y. M. C. A., 115 Va. 747, 80 S. E. 589, 50 L. R. A. [U. S.] 1197: “It is insisted by the Commonwealth that the provision of section 183 of the Constitution must receive a strict construction. The general rule is that provisions exempting property of individuals or private corporations from taxation must be strictly construed, taxation of such property being the rule and exemption from taxation the exception. One of the reasons for this is, that all such persons should bear their full share of the burdens of taxation, and that lessening the burdens of one increases the burden of others. But as the policy of the State has always been to exempt property of the character mentioned and described in section 183 of the Constitution, it should not be construed with the same degree of strictness that applies. to provisions making exemptions contrary to the policy of the State, since as to such property exemption is the rule and taxation the exception.”
These facts sufficiently appear from the record: The Smallwood Memorial Institute, incorporated 1913, is the successor of the Temperance Industrial and Collegiate Institute, and is an industrial school which has been
Under these facts, we have no doubt whatever that these three adjoining parcels of land, together with the furniture, furnishings, books and instruments thereon, including
Affirmed, in fart, reversed in fart, and remanded.