Daughters of St. Paul, Inc. v. City of San Antonio
Decision Date | 10 February 1965 |
Docket Number | No. 14342,14342 |
Citation | 387 S.W.2d 709 |
Parties | DAUGHTERS OF ST. PAUL, INC., Appellant, v. CITY OF SAN ANTONIO et al., Appellees. |
Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
Pat Maloney, San Antonio, for appellant.
Sam S. Wolfe, City Atty., William R. Ward, Asst. City Atty., Arley V. Knight, San Antonio, for appellees.
This suit was instituted by appellant, Daughters of St. Paul, Inc., duly incorporated as a non-profit corporation, doing business as St. Paul Catholic Book and Film Center, against appellees, City of San Antonio and San Antonio Independent School District, seeking a declaratory judgment exempting its property at 114 East Main Plaza, located within the corporate limits of both of appellees, from any ad valorem tax. Appellees answered denying that appellant was entitled to an ad valorem tax exemption on its property at 114 East Main Plaza, and by way of cross-action sought to collect past due taxes on such property, together with interest and penalties for the years 1958 to 1962, both inclusive, amounting to the total sum of $4,245.59. Appellees' cross-action was not seriously contested.
The cause was submitted to the court, a jury being waived, upon an agreed statement of facts, plus the deposition of Sisters Mary Rosalba, with exhibits attached thereto. The trial court denied any tax exemption on the property and rendered judgment for the past due taxes, from which judgment the Daughters of St. Paul, Inc., has prosecuted this appeal.
Appellant's first point is that the court erred in holding that it is not entitled to ad valorem tax exemption within the meaning of Article VIII, Sec. 2, of the Texas Constitution, Vernon's Ann.St.
Art. VIII, Sec. 2, reads in part as follows:
'All occupation taxes shall be equal and uniform upon the same class of subjects within the limits of the authority levying the tax; but the legislature may, by general laws, exempt from taxation * * * institutions of purely public charity; * * *.'
Appellant bases its claim for a tax exemption upon the provision relating to 'institutions of purely public charity.'
The authority given to the Legislature in the above constitutional provision has been exercised and its action, insofar as it relates to institutions of purely public charity, is found in Sec. 7 of Art 7150, Vernon's Ann.Civ.Stats., reading as follows:
Appellant contends that a liberal construction should be given to the above provisions of the constitution and statutes, so as to include it within the exemption provided. The Supreme Court of Texas in River Oaks Garden Club v. City of Houston, 370 S.W.2d 851, has decided this question against appellant's contention in the following language:
'The courts of some states construe constitutional and statutory tax exemptions accorded institutions of purely public charity liberally, some strictly. See Zollman's American Law of Charities, pp. 460-468. The courts of Texas have been committed to a strict construction since an early date. See Morris v. Lone Star Chapter No. 6, Royal Arch Masons, 68 Tex. 698, 5 S.W. 519. Moreover, a strict construction seems more in harmony with the intent of the people when they adopted the Constitution in 1876, and conforms to our announcement in Cox v. Robison, 105 Tex. 426, 150 S.W. 1149, 1151, that 'The fundamental rule for the government of courts in the interpretation or construction of a Constitution is to give effect to the intent of the people who adopted it.' The action of the delegates in the Constitutional Convention of 1875 on various tax exemption proposals, as reflected in the Journal of the Convention, indicates that they intended that exemptions from taxes be narrow and limited.
'In Morris v. Lone Star Chapter No. 6, Royal Arch Masons, 68 Tex. 698, 5 S.W. 519, 520-521, we stated the underlying reason for a strict construction of the 'used exclusively' provision of the constitutional tax exemption, as follows:
"The reason of these rules would seem to be that it is but just and equitable that the property of all persons and associations of persons should bear the burdens of government in equal proportion; and hence it is to be presumed that the law-makers did not intend to make an exception in favor of any class unless that intention be clearly expressed.'
'In Massachusetts General Hospital v. Inhabitants of Belmont, 233 Mass. 190, 124 N.E. 21, 25, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts stated the rationale for exemption from taxes of property of charitable instiutions as well as a sound reason for strict construction in these words:
.
With the above holdings of the Supreme Court in mind, let us examine the facts of this case. The facts are largely stipulated and are undisputed. Appellant was incorporated on September 12, 1963, under the Texas Non-Profit Corporation Act with domicile...
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McClure v. City of Texarkana, 7897
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