Cheshire v. County Comm'rs of Berkshire

• Decision Date: 25 September 1875
• Citation: 118 Mass. 386
• Parties: Inhabitants of Cheshire v. County Commissioners of Berkshire
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

118 Mass. 386

Inhabitants of Cheshire v. County Commissioners of Berkshire

Supreme Court of Massachusetts

September 25, 1875

Berkshire. Petition for a writ of certiorari. The case was reserved by Colt, J., for the consideration of the full court upon the petition and answer, and was as follows:

In 1874, the Adams and Cheshire Reservoir Company, the owner of a reservoir of water, with the land under the same and dams connected therewith, used to maintain a uniform supply of water for mill power, and liable to taxation therefor in the town of Cheshire, was assessed a tax of nine hundred dollars upon a valuation of sixty thousand dollars. In determining this valuation the assessors made what was in their judgment a fair cash valuation of the property, and did not assess the tax as required by the St. of 1872, c. 306. The reservoir company then applied to the county commissioners for an abatement of the tax, who decided that the assessors should have valued the property as provided in said statute and abated the tax accordingly.

Writ of certiorari issued.

M Wilcox, for the petitioner.

H. L Dawes, for the respondents. 1. The St. of 1872, c. 306, is one of classification, not of exemption. The error of the petitioner is in assuming that the whole taxable value of a reservoir lies in the land and dam. On the contrary, it lies mostly in the use, in the water power which is created by its application elsewhere. Boston Manufacturing Co. v. Newton, 22 Pick. 22. Lowell v. County Commissioners, 6 Allen 131. The statute does not meddle with that taxable value, but prescribes only what of the entire taxable value shall be taxed as land.

2. If however, the effect of this statute should be found to be to exempt from taxation some portion of the taxable value of such a reservoir, still it would not follow that it is unconstitutional. The Constitution, c. 5, § 2, enjoins upon the Legislature as a duty to encourage rewards and immunities for the promotion of manufactures. The concurrent and uninterrupted construction of the Constitution has authorized such exemptions. Such construction, repeated through a long series of years, ought to have great weight, and not to be overruled unless manifestly erroneous. Kendall v. Kingston, 5 Mass. 524, 534. Barnes v. First Parish in Falmouth, 6 Mass. 401, 417. Portland Bank v. Apthorp, 12 Mass. 252, 257.

Machinery in cotton and woollen manufactories was exempted from taxation in 1818. 2 Mass. Laws (ed. 1823) 581 note. And it, together with sheep, continued to be exempted until the St. of 1828, c. 143. By the St. of 1821, c. 107, § 3, unimproved land was taxed at two per cent. on its value, all other property at six per cent. on its value. By the St. of 1872, c. 327, any city or town might for ten years exempt from taxation property used exclusively in the manufacture of beet sugar. See also Rev. Sts. c. 7, § 5; Gen. Sts. c. 11, § 5.

Wells, J. Ames & Devens, JJ., absent.

OPINION

Wells, J.

This case is presented to the court solely upon the question of the construction and validity of the St. of 1872, c. 306, which is as follows: "All reservoirs of water, with the dams connected therewith and the lands under the same, used to maintain a uniform supply of water for mill power, shall be assessed for the purposes of taxation in the town or towns where located, at a valuation not exceeding a fair valuation of land of like quality in the immediate vicinity."

We are unable to construe this statute as requiring merely that the value of land and structures, appropriated for the purpose of creating and applying water power for mills, should be apportioned between different towns, in each of which part only of the works is situated, so that the land alone should be taxed in the town where it is situated, and the artificial structures or appliances for creating the power should be taken as included in the estimate of the value of the power itself, and taxed in the same town as the site upon which it is applied and used; nor can we regard it in purpose and effect as providing, by way of classification merely, that such structures and appliances shall be...