Brown Univ. v. Granger

• Decision Date: 11 February 1897
• Citation: 36 A. 720,19 R.I. 704
• Parties: BROWN UNIVERSITY v. GRANGER, City Treasurer.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

36 A. 720

19 R.I. 704

BROWN UNIVERSITY

v. GRANGER, City Treasurer.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

Feb. 11, 1897.

Action by Brown University against Daniel L. D. Granger, city treasurer of Providence, to recover taxes paid on property of the plaintiff under protest. Certified on demurrer to declaration. Demurrer overruled, and judgment directed for plaintiff.

Arnold Green and Theodore F. Green, for plaintiff.

Francis Colvvell and Albert A. Baker, for defendant.

TILLING HAST, J. The main question raised by the pleadings in this case is whether a certain parcel of real estate, situate on Westminster street, in the city of Providence, which the plaintiff owns and holds for its corporate purposes, is liable to taxation. Said real estate constitutes a part of the endowment of the plaintiff corporation. In the year 1895 the assessors of taxes of said city assessed a tax on said real estate amounting to $2,491.20, which sum, together with interest and expenses of levy, was paid by the plaintiff under protest, and this action is brought to recover the same, on the ground that the tax was illegal. The charter of the plaintiff was granted in February, 1764. It provides that the corporators shall be a "body corporate and politic," "to have, take, possess, purchase, acquire or otherwise receive and hold lands, tenements, hereditaments, goods, chattels or other estates, of all which they may and shall stand and be seized, notwithstanding any misnomer of the college or the corporation hereof." "And with the monies, estates and revenues of which they shall from time to time become legally seized as aforesaid, to endow the same and erect the necessary buildings and edifices thereof on such place within this colony as they shall think convenient. And generally to regulate, order and govern the same, appoint officers and make laws as hereinafter prescribed, and hold, use and enjoy all the liberties, privileges, exemptions, dignities and immunities enjoyed by any college or university whatever." "And furthermore for the greater encouragement of this seminary of learning and that the same may be amply endowed and enfranchised with the same privileges, dignities and immunities enjoyed by the American colleges and European universities, we do grant, enact, ordain and declare, and it is hereby granted, enacted, ordained and declared that the college estate, the estates, persons and families of the president and professors for the time being lying and being within the colony, with the persons of the tutors and students during their residence at the college, shall be freed and exempted from all taxes, serving on juries and menial services, and that the persons aforesaid shall be exempted from bearing arms, impress and military services except in case of invasion." "And lastly, we, the governor and company aforesaid, do for ourselves and our successors forever hereby enact, grant and confirm unto the said trustees and fellows, and to their successors, that this charter of incorporation and every part thereof shall be good and available in all things in the law, according to our true intent and meaning, and shall be construed, reputed and adjudged in all eases most favorably on the behalf and for the best benefit and behoof of the said trustees and fellows and their successors so as most effectually to answer the valuable ends of this useful institution."

In view of the provisions of the charter above set out, the first question which logically presents itself is whether the exemption clause thereof is broad enough to include the land in question. It is very clear from the language used in the charter, taken as a whole, that the general assembly intended to foster and promote the interests and welfare of the college as far as possible. The preamble is couched in language of unmistakable import in this regard. It is as follows: "Whereas institutions for liberal education are highly beneficial to society, by forming the rising generation to virtue, knowledge and useful literature and thus preserving in the community a succession of men duly qualify'd for discharging the offices of life with usefulness and reputation, they have therefore justly merited & received the attention & encouragement of every wise and well regulated state, and whereas a public school or seminary erected for that purpose within this colony, to which the youth may freely resort for education in the vernacular & learned languages & in the liberal arts & sciences, would be for the general advantage & honor of the government, and whereas Mr. Nicholas Brown and others [naming them] with many other persons appear as undertakers in the valuable design," etc. The general assembly evidently contemplated that the college would be endowed, and in order that it might be, and that it might be enfranchised, with the same privileges and immunities enjoyed by the American colleges and European universities, they ordained that the college estate should be freed and exempted from all taxes. Nor did they stop here; but, lest their desire to specially favor this valuable institution of learning should be misunderstood, they declared that "the charter and every part thereof shall be good and available in all things in law, according to our true intent and meaning, and shall be construed, reputed and adjudged in all cases most favorably on the behalf and for the best benefit and behoof of the said trustees and fellows and their successors so as most effectually to answer the valuable ends of this useful institution." It is difficult to see how the intention of the general assembly to exempt all of the property which might be owned by the plaintiff from taxation could have been more clearly and emphatically expressed. The charter abounds in expressions of almost paternal solicitude for the welfare of the college, and then winds up by providing that it shall be construed most favorably in behalf of the corporation. To this it might be added, as matter of common knowledge, that substantially the same fostering spirit which dominated the colonial general assembly in the passage of this charter has ever since prevailed among all classes of our citizens towards the...