158 Ind. 638 | Ind. | 1902
This was a proceeding by the appellee against the appellant, the treasurer of Marshall county, to enjoin the collection of certain taxes alleged to have been assessed against the property of the appellee without authority of law. The complaint was in two paragraphs. A demurrer to each was overruled. The court made a special finding of the facts, and stated its conclusions of law thereon, to each of which conclusions the appellant excepted. Motion for a new trial overruled, and judgment for appellee on the conclusions of law. By his assignment of errors the appellant questions the correctness of the several rulings of the court adverse to him.
The second paragraph differs but slightly from the first. It describes the property as a home and charitable institution for orphan, homeless, and indigent children, maintained there by public and private charity. Exemption of the said
The Constitution requires the General Assembly to prescribe such regulations as shall secure a just valuation for taxation of all property, both real and personal, excepting such only for municipal, educational, literary, scientific, religious, or charitable purposes, as may be especially exempted by law. Constitution, Art. 10, §1. In pursuance of the authority conferred upon it by this provision, the General Assembly enacted that: “The following property shall be exempt from taxation: * * * Fifth. Every building used and set apart for educational, * * * or charitable purposes by any * * * individual * * *, and the tract of land on which such building is situated; also the lands purchased with the bona fide intention of erecting buildings for such use thereon, not exceeding forty acres; also the personal property, endowment funds and interest thereon, belonging to any institution, * * * and connected with, used or set apart for any of the purposes aforesaid.” Acts 1891, p. 199, §8412 Bums 1901. The complaint alleges that the property, real and personal, described therein, has been set apart and is used exclusively by its owner for educational and charitable purposes.
The training of the orphan, indigent, and afflicted inmates of the institution in the arts of agriculture and housekeeping and in manual labor is as truly educational in its nature, and important in its objects, as is the cultivation of their minds by literary and scientific studies. The fact that the school or home is maintained by contributions from the counties and townships of the State and by private donations does not render it any the less a charitable institution than if it was supported entirely by the bounty of the appellee. Neither does the circumstance that the maintenance of the school or
It was held in City of Indianapolis v. Sturdevant, 24 Ind. 391, 394, that the fact that the institution was conducted on private account, and the earnings applied to the personal benefit of the individual proprietor, did not deprive property erected for the use of any literary or scientific institution of the benefit of the exemption secured to such property by the statute. The reasoning in the earlier cases of Orr v. Baker, 4 Ind. 86, and Common Council v. McLean, 8 Ind. 328, was declared inapplicable to the facts shown by the complaint in the Sturdevant case, or, if supposed to be pertinent, it was disapproved. In Travelers Ins. Co. v. Kent, 151 Ind. 349, 355, the Sturdevant case is distinguished and approved. See, also, Massachusetts Soc. v. City of Boston, 142 Mass. 24, 6 N. E. 840; Appeal Tax Ct. v. Academy, 50 Md. 437, 442; Bartlet v. King, 12 Mass. *537, 7 Am. Dec. 99; Going v. Emery, 16 Pick. (Mass.) 107, 26 Am. Dec. 645; Association v. Mayor, etc., 104 N. Y. 581, 12 N. E. 279; Western Dispensary v. Mayor, etc., 4 N. Y. Supp. 547; Infant Asylum v. Supervisors, 31 Hun 116.
Hor do we think the complaint subject to the objection that the home or school is an enterprise of a temporary character. On the contrary, the averments in regard to the real estate, the nature and arrangement of the buildings, and the purposes of the institution indicate that it is intended to be a permanent establishment.
The views of the law already expressed are decisive of the questions presented upon the exceptions to the conclusions of law on the special finding and the motion for a new trial. The facts found authorized the conclusions, and the evidence sustained the finding.
There is no error in the record. Judgment affirmed.