139 N.Y.S. 436 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1913
The relator is a domestic corporation domiciled in the town of Clarkstown, in the county of ¡Rockland in this State. It was assessed for taxation in that town in the year 1912, on personal property, in the sum of $1,000. It made complaint to the board of assessors to the effect that the only personal property held by it was not subject to taxation under the laws of this State, and asked that the assessment rolls be corrected accordingly. This request was refused by the board of assessors of the town, and the corporation thereupon sued out a writ of • certiorari to review the validity of the assessment in question. The matter Was sent to a referee, who took the proofs of the parties and made a report in which he decided that the personal property assessed against the relator was not subject to local taxation for the year 1912. This report was confirmed by an order of the Special Term of the Supreme Court in Bock-land county, which directed. that the assessment theretofore made' against the relator should be canceled. Prom this order the board of assessors of said town have appealed to this court. There is no controversy as to the facts, and the only question involved is as to the proper interpretation of several sections of the Tax Law of this State. It appears that the relator owns a bond for $1,000 issued by Armour & Company, a foreign corporation. This bond, one of a series amounting in the aggregate to $30,000,000, was secured by a mortgage made by the Armour Company upon its real estate. The greater part of the real estate covered by the mortgage was situated without this • State, but some parcels thereof were situated in the counties
“§251. Exemption from local taxation. All mortgages of real property situated within the State which are taxed by this article and the debts and the obligations which they secure, together with the paper writings evidencing the same, shall be exempt from other taxation by the State, counties, cities, towns, villages, school districts and other local subdivisions of the State, except that such mortgage shall not be exempt from the taxes imposed by sections twenty-four, one hundred and eighty-seven, one hundred and eighty-eight, one hundred and eighty-nine and article ten of this chapter; but the exemption conferred by this section shall not be construed to impair or in any manner affect the title of any purchaser of land or real estate which may be sold for nonpayment of taxes levied by any local authority.”
Section 253 of the same statute, and likewise a part of article 11, provides as follows:
“§ 253. Becording tax. A tax of fifty cents for each one hundred dollars and each remaining major fraction thereof of principal debt or obligation which is, or under any contingency may be secured at the date of the execution thereof or at any time thereafter by mortgage on real property situated within the State recorded on or after the first day of July, nineteen hundred and six, is hereby imposed on each such mortgage, and shall be collected and-paid as provided in this article. If the principal debt or obligation which is or by any contingency may be secured by such mortgage recorded on or after the first day of July, nineteen hundred and seven, is less than one hundred dollars, a tax of fifty cents is hereby imposed on such mortgage, and shall be collected and paid as provided in this article.”
Section 260 of the same statute provides in part, so far as is material to this controversy, as follows: “ When the real prop
We think that the clause of exemption contained in section 251 of the statute, as aforesaid, goes only to the extent to which the mortgage in question is taxable and has been “taxed ” under the provisions of said article 11. Otherwise we should have an unequal result,, for, in order to gain an exemption under article 11 of the Tax Law, there must be paid on a mortgage covering real property situated wholly within this State, a tax on the full amount of the principal indebtedness, while a mortgage-covering property, practically all of which is located without this State, can have the same exemption from local taxation within this State on the payment of a tax on practically an insignificant proportion of the total amount of the principal indebtedness. It is true that where the intention of the statute is plain it is not for the courts to so interpret it as to avoid inequalities. At the same time, however, wherever there is room or necessity for interpretation, the courts must consider the statute. in such manner as to avoid false consequences, which cannot be deemed to have been intended by the Legislature. As we look at this statute, it seems to us clear enough that it was the intention of the Legislature to grant no exemption from taxation for local purposes under this article except to the extent that the mortgage was taxable and “taxed” under the article and that there is nothing in the words of the statute in any way inconsistent with such obvious intent. These conclusions lead to a reversal of the order appealed from and require that the assessment roll in question should be corrected to the extent that there should be deducted from the face amount of the bond owned by the
The order should be reversed and assessment modified to the extent of reducing the amount of the assessment to the extent of sixteen one-thousandths per cent thereof, without costs of this appeal.
Jenks, P. J., Hirschberg-, Burr and Thomas, JJ., concurred.
Order reversed and assessment modified to the extent of reducing the amount of the assessment to the extent of sixteen one-thousandths per cent thereof, without costs of this appeal.