Academy of Sacred Heart v. Irey

• Decision Date: 03 June 1897
• Docket Number: 7310
• Parties: ACADEMY OF THE SACRED HEART, APPELLEE, v. H. B. IREY, COUNTY TREASURER, APPELLANT
• Court: Nebraska Supreme Court

71 N.W. 752

51 Neb. 755

ACADEMY OF THE SACRED HEART, APPELLEE, v. H. B. IREY, COUNTY TREASURER, APPELLANT

No. 7310

Supreme Court of Nebraska

June 3, 1897

APPEAL from the district court of Douglas county. Heard below before FERGUSON, J. Affirmed.

AFFIRMED.

J. L Kaley and A. C. Troup, for appellant.

Mahoney & Smyth, contra.

OPINION

NORVAL, J.

This action was brought by the Academy of the Sacred Heart against H. B. Irey, the treasurer of Douglas county, to enjoin the collection of alleged illegal taxes levied upon plaintiff's property. The county treasurer appeals from the decree rendered against him.

Plaintiff is a corporation organized in 1882 for educational purposes under and in pursuance of the provisions of sections 15 to 18, inclusive, of chapter 16 of the Compiled Statutes of this state. In the same year the lots described in the petition were donated and conveyed to plaintiff for the purpose of establishing a school for the education of girls and young ladies in the higher branches, and the corporation ever since has been the owner of the premises. Shortly after acquiring the property, plaintiff erected a five-story building on a portion of the lots, at a cost of over $ 100,000, and the same has hitherto been used solely for school purposes. The lots are all included in a single enclosure, and have been by plaintiff improved and beautified by the planting out thereon of several hundred trees and shrubs, by flower beds and the making of driveways and walks, artistically laid out. A portion of the lots have been used by plaintiff as a vegetable garden, which has supplied the tables for the officers, teachers, students, and others connected with the school. No portion of the premises has been held for speculation, but the entire tract has been devoted to the purposes for which it was originally intended. The lots upon which the school building proper is located were not assessed, but the remainder were taxed for all purposes. The trial court held the entire property exempt from taxation, and the correctness of this decision is the question presented for judicial investigation.

Section 2, article 9, of the constitution provides: "The property of the state, counties, and municipal corporations both real and personal, shall be exempt from taxation, and such other property as may be used exclusively for agricultural and horticultural societies, for school religious, cemetery, and charitable purposes, may be exempted from taxation, but such exemption shall be only from general law." In 1879, the legislature, in the mode above indicated, enacted that there should be exempted from taxation in this state, inter alia, such property as may be used exclusively for educational purposes. The language is as comprehensive as it is possible to use. The legislature has, in pursuance of the power conferred upon it by the constitution, exempted from the burdens of taxation property used exclusively for the purposes of education. The test applied by this court in First Christian Church of Beatrice v. City of Beatrice, 39 Neb. 432, 58 N.W. 166, was whether the property is used directly, immediately, and exclusively for one of the purposes enumerated in the statute creating the exemptions, in which case it was ruled that lots owned by a religious society, but not used for religious...