47 Pa. Super. 384 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1911
Opinion by
The tax which is the subject of the pending controversy was assessed pursuant to the provisions of the thirty-second section of the Act of April 29, 1844, P. L. 486, which so far as relates to the taxation of real estate is as follows: “From and after the passage of this act all real estate, to-wit: Houses, lands, lots of ground, and ground rents, mills and manufactories of all kinds, furnaces, forges, bloomeries, distilleries, sugar houses, malt houses, breweries, tan-yards, fisheries and ferries, wharves and all other real estate not exempt by law from taxation shall be valued and assessed and subject to taxation for the purposes in this act mentioned and for all state and county purposes whatsoever.” A subsequent portion of the act describes the classes of personal property which are subject to assessment. That the property owned by the defendant was real estate is not open to question. It consisted of land and a building. Whether it contained any machinery belonging to the defendant is not disclosed in the affidavit of defense the averment being that the improvements and machinery enumerated as part of the property in the return of the assessor belonged to the tenant and was therefore improperly included in the valuation of the real estate. That the assessment is and was intended to be the assessment of real estate is obvious. While the property might have been valued in one item the integrity of the assessment was not affected by the fact that the assessor enumerated the elements entering into the aggregate of the valuation and placed a separate value on each. If the assessment had been of land and a building alone with a valuation on each, no one would pretend that the assessment was not against real estate, for the total of the items returned by the assessor and the inclusion of the machinery in the building as a part of that which composed the real estate and contributed to its value must be regarded as bringing it within the category of realty for purposes of taxation. From the point of view of the taxing authorities the property assessed con
The judgment is affirmed.