176 Ga. 705 | Ga. | 1933
Lead Opinion
An institution operated as a hospital under the name of Georgia Baptist Hospital occupied certain buildings and the land on which they were erected in the City of Atlanta, for the purpose of conducting a hospital including the conduct of a school for training nurses for employment in the hospital. The enterprise was under actual charge of the Executive Committee of the Baptist Convention of the State of Georgia, a corporation created by the act approved December 22, 1830 (Ga. L. 1830, p. 73). An execution was issued for State and County taxes on the property for the year 1929, by the tax-collector of Fulton County. The Executive Committee of the Baptist Convention of the State of Georgia, hereinafter called the Executive Committee, instituted an action to cancel the execution as a cloud on title and enjoin collection of the tax on the ground that as property devoted to charitable purposes the property was exempt from taxation. The case was tried by consent by the judge, who was authorized by the agreement to pass upon all questions of law and fact without a jury. After introduction of evidence by both sides and argument of counsel, the judge held that the property was not subject to taxation, and granted the prayers of the petition. The defendant excepted.
Taxation is the general rule. Exemption from taxation is the exception. On the question of exemption by the constitution and statute the doctrine of strict construction applies. Mayor &c. of Gainesville v. Brenau College, 150 Ga. 156 (2) (103 S. E. 164). The pertinent language of the constitution, article 7, section 2, paragraph 2 (Civil Code, § 6554), is: “The General Assembly may, by law, exempt from taxation . . all institutions of purely public charity, . . provided the property so exempted be not used for purposes of private or corporate profit 'or income.” The pertinent language of the statute (Civil Code, § 998) is: “The following described property shall be exempt from taxation, to wit . . all institutions of purely public charity, . . provided the above-described property so exempted be not used for purposes of private or corporate profit or income.” Though the constitutional provision was not self-operative, it was carried into effect by the statute, the language quoted from both being identical. Although “institutions” may be “of purely public charity,” the property will not be exempt if, as expressed in the proviso, the property is “used for purposes of private or corporate profit or income.” If it be conceded
In Trustees of the Academy of Richmond County v. Bohler, 80 Ga. 159 (7 S. E. 633), it was said: “The constitution does not itself exempt anything, but only grants power to the General Assembly to exempt the enumerated property, expressly denying to it power to exempt any other. . . No matter to whom the institutions belong, whether to a private individual, to a corporation, or to an unincorporated company or association, they are equally exempt, provided they are dedicated to charity and used exclusively as institutions of purely public charity. . . The terms ‘private or corporate’ are employed in contradistinction to public. . . Public property is not taxed, whether income be derived from it or not; but private or corporate property, though it be connected with the external, visible ‘institution,’ is not exempt if used for income, since the income from such property must, by reason of its ownership, be either private or corporate, these terms being comprehensive enough to include all income whatsoever that is not public. It may be thought that the produce of 6, pauper farm, connected with an almshouse, would come within the terms ‘profit or income,’ and so they would, perhaps, as to any surplus over and above the consumption of the inmates and others attached to the establishment; but the main purpose being to furnish employment to the paupers, and supply them with subsistence at the seat of the institution, the element of profit or income would be altogether secondary and incidental. The property, therefore, would not be used for profit or income in the same sense as if it were farmed or rented out, and not used at all by the inmates, but by others paying for its use as productive capital. The scheme of exemption as to other than public property seems to be this: to exempt all that is used immediately and directly as a part of the establishment in the conduct of the regular business there carried on, but not such as may be devoted to other uses, such as farming, merchandising, manufacturing, etc., and from which profit or income is derived. It is the use of the property which renders it exempt or non-exempt, not the use of the income derived from it. . . Property used to produce income to be expended in charity is too remote from the ultimate charitable object to be exempt. If prop
In Massenburg v. Grand Lodge, 81 Ga. 212 (7 S. E. 636), referring to these provisions of the constitution and statute, it was said: “Interpreting ‘private or corporate income’ to- mean any income which is not public, we consider that productive property used as capital to raise money to expend in charity is used for private income when the owner is a private individual, and for corporate income when the owner is a corporation. It is no more allowable, under the constitution, for a charitable association to accumulate money by the use of exempt property to be disbursed in charity than it is for a common citizen to do it. For A or B it is no answer to the tax-collector to say, ‘This part of my property is rented out to produce my charity fund, and has been for the last ten years; every cent derived from it is given to the poor and needy, and I never considered or used any portion of it as profit or income.’ Neither can such an answer be accepted from any charitable organization whatsoever. In so far as such organizations are administrators and disbursers of purely public charity, their property permanently in use for that purpose is exempt from taxation; but in so far as they are capitalists or proprietors engaged in acquiring money or effects to be so disbursed, property of any and every kind from which their income is derived is subject to be taxed the same as property generally.” In Mundy v. Van Hoose, 104 Ga. 292 (30 S. E. 783), it was held: “‘Buildings erected for and used as a college, incorporated academy, or other seminary of learning,’ are not, under the constitution and laws of this State, exempt from taxation, if ‘used for purposes of private or corporate profit or income.’ . . It follows that grounds, buildings, and other property occupied and used by the owner or owners thereof for conducting a college or school, for attendance upon which charges for board and tuition are made, are subject to taxation.” See also Atlanta Masonic Temple Co. v. Atlanta, 162 Ga. 244 (7) (133 S. E. 864), and eit.
The corporation involved in the instant case has no stockholders to reap private gain by corporate profit. The training-school is an adjunct or part of the hospital. The hospital is supported in sub
Judgment reversed.
Concurrence Opinion
concurring specially. I heartily concur in the statements so tersely made by Mr. Justice Atkinson in the beginning of the opinion delivered in behalf of the court. Taxation is the rule. Exemption is the exception. I concur in the opinion and judgment, however, upon the express understanding on my part that nothing said in this case is in conflict with the general principle followed in Linton v. Lucy Cobb Institute, 117 Ga. 678 (4, 7) (supra). If a charitable institution receives and reserves for the benefit of those who in any capacity are conducting it, either income or profit, it is liable to tax. On the other hand, it is my opinion that in any instance where it appears that all the receipts from pay patients are devoted exclusively to the charitable purpose of caring for patients who are unable to pay and therefore are charity patients, the property of such an institution is entirely exempt by the express provisions of the constitution of Georgia of 1877. In the constitution, art. 7, sec. 2, par. 2, “all institutions of purely public charity” may by law be exempted from taxation, “provided the property so exempted be not used for purposes of private or corporate profit or income.” Taxation being the rule and the exemption the exception, it devolves upon any institution which claims to be exempt to show that it falls within the exemption and