85 Pa. 170 | Pa. | 1877
Lead Opinion
delivered the opinion of the court, January 7th 1878.
“ It is competent for the legislature, with or without the consent of the citizens, to enlarge the limits of any town or city, and it is competent for the defendant (city), when the requirements of'population, commercial and mechanical interests, sanitary or protective municipal purposes require it, to apply to city uses, the full extent of her territorial limits, but your orator expressly denies that such necessity or even propriety exists; on the contrary, large amounts of city territory, on either side and in front of your orator’s farm, are occupied, held and owned, without prospects of demand for city purposes for many years to come. Your orator insists that by extension of city territorial limits, the character, situation and use of his said lands were not changed, but remain an improved and occupied farm as before, and agricultural lands only, having received no benefit whatever in the way of municipal improvements, aid, protection, convenience or care; and that, therefore, they 'are not in any sense liable to municipal or city taxation for any purpose whatever, for no single benefit has been received.” Again, paragraph 18, latter part: “ But your orator expressly denies that the defendant had any municipal jurisdiction over his said land, or farm, or any right to impose taxes thereon, for city or municipal purposes whatever.”
We are thus presented with the broad question of the right of the city to tax rural lands within its bounds for any municipal purpose whatever. It is not admitted that the city succeeded to the rights of the township in this respect, for this would be a surrender of the whole controversy, since it is not doubtful that the township had the power to tax these lands for every lawful municipal purpose whatever.
The power of the legislature to transfer the plaintiff’s farm from the one municipality to the other is admitted; indeed that power could not, in the face of Smith v. McCarthy, 6 P. F. Smith 359, be gainsaid. But it is urged, nevertheless, that the city’s power of taxation must be suspended until this land becomes necessary for city uses. Exactly what this means we are not informed, nor do we suppose it can be certainly known except from some judicial decree not yet rendered. No doubt the meaning of the plaintiff is, that this power of the city is to be suspended or to rest in abeyance until the city is so nearly built up to his lands that they may be advantageously laid out and sold as city lots, and until this
On the broad ground, therefore, on which the plaintiff has put his plaint, it cannot be maintained and must be dismissed. Considering it, however, from the less general and most favorable point of view and it but comes to this: that the taxation is unequal and burthensome, and that the complainant is taxed for some things, as police and water, from which, however necessary for the welfare of the municipality, he derives no benefit. Granted, that the tax is both, unjust and unequal, it does not follow that the remedy is within the power of the courts ; on the other hand, the contrary has been expressly ruled. In the case of Weber v. Reinhard, 28 P. F. Smith 370, Mr. Justice Sharswood says, in commenting on the case of the Philadelphia Association v. Wood, 3 Wright 73, “ the idea that the court could pronounce a tax unconstitutional on the mere ground of injustice or inequality, was expressly repudiated.” He'further remarks; “There is no provision in the constitution that taxation shall be equal. Sound policy requires that it should be so as far as possible, but perfect equality is not possible.”
So in Kirby v. Shaw, 7 Harris 258, Gibson, C. J., says, “As regards taxation, there is no limitation of it. Equality of contribution is not enjoined in the Bill of Rights, and, probably, because R was known to be impracticable.” That the person taxed derives no immediate personal benefit from the purposes to which the taxes are appropriated, is, in like manner, no argument against the constitutionality of the law imposing them. Eor if direct personal benefit were to form a criterion for taxation we should have half the community clamoring at our doors for relief. What interest, direct and personal, has the unseated landowner in the schools or poor of the borough or township in which his lands lie ? Or, for that matter, what interest has any one, not having children to educate, in the schools of either township, borough or city ? Why shall one pay road tax when roads are of no benefit to himself or his property ? Why shall he help pay the expenses of a fire department when his property is so situated that it may burn down before an engine can reach it ? Or, why, either in the country or city, having a supply of water on his own premises, shall he pay a water tax ? To these questions there is but one answer; these things are intended for the public good, and hence, every one is indirectly
Again, taxation is peculiarly a legislative function, and, before wTe undertake to revise it, we should have a clear warrant therefor in the letter of the constitution. “ A tax law must be considered valid, unless it be for a purpose in which the community taxed has no palpable interest — when it is apparent that the burthen is imposed for the benefit of others, and when it would be so pronounced at first blush Sharpless v. The Mayor of Philadelphia, 9 Harris 147 (Black, C. J.); Speer v. Blairsville, 14 Wright 150 (Agnew, J.) But in the present case there is no doubt that the community, called the city of Pittsburgh, of which the plaintiff is a member, has a direct and vital interest in the taxation complained of, and such being the case, there is an end of our power to grant relief.
It will not do for us to stop to consider the peculiar interests of the individual as segregated from the community, for if we should so do, few tax laws could be enforced, since it often if not generally happens that such laws bear hardly upon some individuals, and not unfrequently individual interest is opposed to that of the public. We must have regard to the public welfare. If it bo not shown to us that the legislation is for the promotion of'the good of some other party or community than the one taxed, we have no right to pronounce it unconstitutional. The individual must be regarded as interested in the public welfare, hence his interest must be looked for in that of the community of which he forms part. Now, it may be true that the plaintiff is not personally benefited by either the educational or poor department of the city; but neither is any one not having children to educate, and not being himself a pauper. Yet, for such reason wo are hardly prepared to stay the hand of the collector of school and poor rates. Ho may not be personally benefited by the fire or police department; but the general municipality is largely benefited thereby, and his welfare is found in the prosperity of that municipality. As was well said by the learned
Decree affirmed.
Dissenting Opinion
dissent, Agnew, C. J., filing the following opinion.
The leading facts of this case, raising an important questiomupon the power of taxation for city purposes, .alleged in the bill, and either not denied in the answer or found by the master, are these: The limits of the city of Pittsburgh were extended to embrace a large tract of country composed of farm lands, including the rural townships of Pitt, Oakland, Collins, Liberty and Peakes. The plaintiff owns a farm of eighty acres, bounded by farms, excepting an adjacent parcel of about twenty acres laid off into lots. On the north of his tract lie about one thousand acres in farms, and surrounding and between it and the city lie other farms. His tract i‘s used for farming and dairy purposes only. It was not brought into the city with his consent, and has not been laid off into lots. It lies distant from gas-pipes and lamps, water-pipes, sewers, police beats, and fire appar-atus. It has no streets or lanes maintained for city uses, excepting those prior existing roads which were and are sufficient for the use of his farm. It has springs of water sufficient for its use. In consequence of being brought within the city limits it is taxed a sum of $2117, on a valuation of $244,000 for city purposes alone, exclusive of county, poor, and ward school taxes, while the productive yearly value as a farm is $10 per acre, or $800 for the whole.
The master has' discussed a, number of immaterial questions; for example, the system of valuation and its conclusiveness, the power of the city to extend works into the tract, and the ability of Kelly to lay off his land into city lots. These, however, concern the future chiefly, and afe aside from the true question, that of power, to wit: the authority of the city to burthen such property in its existing condition, with taxes for merely city purposes. The rightful power of the city to do this is rested primarily on the power of the legislature to extend the city limits over farm lands. The power to extend is conceded. It is often necessary as a wise preparation to bring such lands into a state necessary to adapt them to future progress. But this concession to the power of extension, and general municipal jurisdiction, gives no power to tax farms hav
If the legislature can, by a mere extension of boundary, authorize the city to tax farm lands for purely city purposes, it might, without extension, direct all farms, within given lines, outside of the city, to pay these city taxes. Thus, when we get rid of that confusion of thought which confounds extension of boundary and power of taxation, we perceive that taxes laid on mere farm lauds to pay city levies applicable only to the built-up or true city, is nothing more than an order to farmers to pay for the benefit of the city residents; it is taking the money of A. to pay for improvements made for the use of B. This is palpably and flagrantly unjust, and therefore against common right. If the legislature itself cannot compel farmers to pay city taxes for purely local purposes in which they have no share, it is clear it cannot authorize the city to do indirectly what it cannot do directly. An order, with or without the extension of boundary, upon a certain class to pay taxes for local benefits conferred on others, is wholly different from a power to lay a general tax for the support of government. The latter is a power to which every citizen of a state submits himself in consideration of the general benefits derived from government. But as to the former, it is well said, in Bradshaw v. The City of Omaha, 1 Nebraska 16, that the object is to make the owners of farms divide the expense of supporting the municipal government with those who need it; that the true city is the built-up part; while the levy of taxes on farms is to confiscate property outside for the benefit of those within the true city. See, also, Taylor v. Porter, 4 Hill 140; Holden v. James, 11 Mass. 896.
The power of the legislature is clear to divide the state, for convenient local government, into counties, townships, cities, boroughs, &c., conferring on each an appropriate autonomy. But in doing this, the powers conferred must be adapted to the ends to be accomplished by each. A sound and largo discretion is necessarily exercised in this adaptation of powers. But it is equally clear that the powers conferred must have a reasonable appropriatenesss to the
The same thoughts were thrown out by Chief Justice Marshall, in Fletcher v. Peck, 6 Cranch 87: “It may well be doubted,” he says, “ whether the nature of society and of government does not prescribe some limits to the ^legislative power; and if any be prescribéd, where are they to be found, if the property of an individual, fairly and honestly acquired, may be seized without compensation ? To the legislature all legislative power is granted; but the question whether the act of transferring the property of an individual to the public be in the nature of the legislative power, is well worthy of serious reflection.”
- This is precisely the question before us, whether, under the mere name or color of taxation, the. legislature can confer on a city a power to transfer the money or property of farmers outside of the true city, to those who live within it, for purposes by which they alone are benefited ?
The inviolability of the right of private property and the natural boundary of the legislative power has been enforced already in this state in the case of Washington Avenue, 19 P. F. Smith 363, in these words: “ When, therefore, the constitution declares in the ninth article, that among the inherent and indefeasible rights of men is that of acquiring, possessing and protecting property, that the people shall be secure in their possessions from unreasonable searches and seizures; that no one can be deprived of property unless by the judgment of his peers or the law of the land; that no man’s property shall be taken or applied to public use without 'just compensation being made; that every man for an injury to
Therefore, while we concede the wide range to be given to legislative discretion in adapting the means to the end, that is, to the purposes of local government, there is a limit beyond which the legislative power cannot sacrifice the sacred right of private property. This limit is reached when it palpably and plainly sacrifices this right, which the people themselves have jealously guarded against transgression in their fundamental law. There must be, therefore, a reasonable appropriateness in the means employed to execute the legislative purpose. This has been well expressed by Chief Justice Marshall, that bright luminary of constitutional law, in discussing the power of Congress, under the 19th clause of the 8th section of the 1st article of the Federal Constitution, to make all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution the federal powers. “ But we think (he said) the sound construction of the constitution must allow to the national legislature that discretion with regard to
This was said by that greht jurist of an express poAver to pass all laAYS necessary and proper to execute expressly conferred poAvers — the means must be appropriate — must be plainly adapted to a legitimate end — one not prohibited, but consistent with the letter and spirit of the constitution. Hoav much stronger then does the language apply to a case like this, Avhere no express power over the means is given, but the poAver is left to be inferred only from its appropriateness.
The taxing power conferred on the city, therefore, cannot éxtendto such a case as this, where a ruinous burthen is laid on land wholly rural and outside of the city proper, for purely local and city objects,'in Avhich Mr. Kelly the OAvner has no interest. This distinction betAveen local taxation for purely local purposes, and general taxation by the state, in which all are interested, cannot be overlooked or thrust aside. It is the very pivot of the question: People v. Mayor of Brooklyn, 4 Comst. 419; Morse v. Stocker, 1 Allen 159. It is not the extension of boundary Avhich is unconstitutional, but it is the imposition of a burthen, where it is palpably and flagrantly unjust and contrary to common right: Bradshaw v. Omaha, 1 Neb. 16.
We are not without very respectable and numerous precedents for the doctrines contended for. The very point in question is decided in the following cases: Cheaney v. Hooser, 9 B. Mon. 330; Covington v. Southgate, 15 Id. 491; Morford v. Unger, 8 lovva 82; Langworthy v. Dubuque, 13 Id. 86; Fulton v. Davenport, 17 Id. 404; Bradshaw v. Omaha, 1 Neb. 16. The opinions in some of these cases are elaborate, well-considered, and very convincing to my mind.
Much of the answer given to this view of the natural right of property secured by constitutional limitations, is a mere criticism on words. Thus it is said the protection claimed refers only to the power of eminent domain, which relates to a taking, not a taxation of property. Even this clause is entitled to a liberal interpretation : Pearce’s Heirs v. Patton, 7 B. Mon. 162. But the Declaration of Rights does not confine its protection to this clause, when it declares the inherent right of private property, and places it on the same high plane of protection as the rights of life and liberty, or when it declares that the possessions of the people, as well as their persons, houses and papers, shall be secure from unreasonable seizures ;
In discussing this question, the advocates of unlimited power ignore the distinction so palpable between the general power of taxation for the benefit of the whole state, though laid in districts, and the imposition of local burthens in return for specific benefits. As to the former, all men participate more or less in the general advantages of government; but there can be no such postulate for the latter, where it is palpably clear the local burthen is imposed without just cause and is plainly for the benefit of others. And a court must regard a substantial return not a merely speculative or shadowy benefit, which amounts to no more than a pretext.
Keferenee is made to the Kitty Eoup case as covering this. That is a mistake. • It decides one point only, the power under the new constitution to classify the subjects of taxation. But the power to classify is essentially different from the power to impose any tax. Classification implies that the subject is taxable for a proposed purpose. But our question is upon the power to impose any tax for gas, water, fire and police. The classification into urban and rural, the only point in the Kitty Eoup case that had a majority of the court, does not determine whether the rural is subject to a tax for merely city purposes. Some rural properties may be subj ect, for they may have the benefit of gas, water, police and other city advantages. But when the property is, as here, a farm not subject to the tax for these city purposes, it is manifest that classification has nothing to ' do with the case. Classification merely reduces the amount of the tax on the subject of the classification (when it is a taxable subject)' to two-thirds if rural. But the point made in this case is that the subject is not taxable at all for these purely city uses, and the tax is, therefore illegal in whole and in part. It is not taxable for two-thirds or any other proportion. It is not a tax for those general purposes which concern the state, such as county, poor, road and school tax. That would bring the case within the general taxing power. In such a case it is immaterial whether the tax is imposed
We have arrived just at that point in the history of local taxation where, in my judgment, this court should stand firmly as the bulwark of human rights to prevent their sacrifice in detail and by gradual encroachment. If the rights of property can be taken or taxed away, without a justifiable cause to bring the legislative act within the just powers of government, it is confiscation, not legal contribution. Planted on the broad foundation of the rights of men, I shall stand alone, if no one go with me, in the defence of constitutional liberty, opposed to every scheme of plunder, however gilded or bright, which the tenants of municipal places may devise.