49 A. 655 | Md. | 1901
This is an appeal from a pro forma order or judgment of the Baltimore City Court dismissing an appeal filed under section 170 of the New Charter of Baltimore by the United Railways and Electric Company of Baltimore from a ruling made by the Appeal Tax Court of Baltimore, fixing the rate of taxation for the year 1900 upon the assessed valuation of that part of the appellants right of way and tracks, situated in that part of the city of Baltimore commonly known as the Annex or Belt. The case was tried upon an agreed statement of facts, and the sole question is whether the tax should be at the full city rate of $1.67 in the $100, or at 60 cents in the $100, the latter being the Baltimore County rate at the date of the passage of the Annexation Act; and this depends upon the construction of section 19 of that Act (ch. 98, of 1888), now section 4 of the New Charter. That provides that until the year 1900 the rate of taxation for city purposes upon all landed property in the territory annexed by the Act of 1888, and upon which taxes would be paid to Baltimore County if such territory had not been annexed to Baltimore City, should at no time exceed the tax rate of Baltimore County for the year 1887, and that until the year 1900 the assessment of such property should not be increased; provided that even after the year 1900 said rate of taxation should not be increased for city purposes on any landed property in said territory until avenues, streets or alleys should have been opened and constructed through the same, nor until there should be on every block of ground so to be formed, at least six dwellings or storehouses ready for occupation.
The statement of facts may be thus abbreviated: *632
1st. That the petitioner is a corporation under the laws of Maryland operating an electric railway of which forty-six miles of double track, assessed at $17,000 per mile, are operated in said annex.
2nd. That thirty-one of these forty-six miles run through property through which avenues, streets and alleys have been constructed, and upon which there are, ready for occupation, upon each block so formed, through which the railway tracks extended, six dwellings or storehouses, and that said thirty-one miles are therefore properly taxable at $1.67 per $100, that being the city rate for the year 1900.
3rd. That fifteen of these forty-six miles run through property through which no avenues, streets, or alleys have been constructed, nor are there ready for occupation upon each block through which said tracks extend, six dwellings or store houses; and that the property immediately contiguous to said fifteen miles was taxed for the year 1900 by the Appeal Tax Court, at the Baltimore County rate of 60 cents in the $100, at which said rate also, said fifteen miles had been taxed by Baltimore City prior and up to the year 1900.
4th. That the railway company paid to the city of Baltimore for the year 1900 taxes upon said fifteen miles of track assessed at $17,000 per mile, at the full city rate of $1.67 in the $100, aggregating $4,258.50, whereas the rate thereon should have been only 60 cents in the $100, aggregating only $1,530, and that it has thus paid $2,728.50 in excess of the true and legal amount due, which excess should be repaid to it by the comptroller of the city with interest from the date of its payment to the city.
It is stated in the appellant's brief that part of its right of way is over turnpikes on which the right to lay its tracks was purchased from the turnpike companies, part over the beds of public roads or streets under some sufficient authority, and part is held under fee-simple conveyances. None of these things however appear in the agreed statement of facts, but we do not regard them as material to the proper dispositon of the case. *633
The appellants maintain that the term, "landed property," as used in the Annexation Act, and in the new charter, is identical in meaning with the term real estate, and that its right of way, however acquired, and held, is landed property, or real estate; and that since the proviso of the Annexation Act and of the new charter expressly declares that the Baltimore County rate of taxation for 1887 shall not be increased for city purposes on any landed property within the annexed territory until the conditions heretofore set forth as to avenues, streets, or alleys, and buildings or store houses have been complied with, that it therefore necesarily follows ex vi termini that the Baltimore County rate of taxation for the year 1887 is the proper standard of taxation for these fifteen miles of right of way, which by said agreed statement of facts are not brought within the conditions prescribed for the city rate. In support of this position the appellant relies upon the case of The Appeal TaxCourt v. Western Md. R.R.,
This argument encounters at the outset the difficulties interposed by the strict and rigid construction of tax exemptions declared by all legal writers and Courts and so familiar as to *634
make any extended reference to them inappropriate. But here there is a clear exemption of "landed property," under certaincircumstances, and it is of this class of cases that JUDGE COOLEY says in his work on Taxation, 2 ed., p. 205. "It is a very just rule that when an exemption is found to exist, it shall not be enlarged by construction;" and again, on page 204, note 3, "Taxation is an act of sovereignty, to be performed, as far as it conveniently can be, with justice and equality to all. Exemptions, no matter how meritorious, are of grace, and must be strictly construed." In Appeal Tax Court v. Rice,
In Appeal Tax Court v. St. Mary's Seminary,
The order and judgment of the City Court will therefore be reversed and the cause be remanded to the end that an order may be passed directing and requiring the Comptroller of the city of Baltimore to repay to the petitioner the sum of $2,728.50 with interest thereon from the date of its payment by the petitioner, that being the difference between the amount paid and that which should have been paid.
Order reversed and cause remanded that an order may be passedin conformity with this opinion. Costs above and below to be paidby the appellees.
(Decided June 14th, 1901.) *638