Grand Lodge F. & A. M. v. Taylor

• Decision Date: 06 December 1920
• Docket Number: (No. 32.)
• Citation: 226 S.W. 129
• Parties: GRAND LODGE F. & A. M. et al. v. TAYLOR, Collector.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

226 S.W. 129

GRAND LODGE F. & A. M. et al. v. TAYLOR, Collector.

(No. 32.)

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

December 6, 1920.

Rehearing Denied January 10, 1921.

Appeal from Pulaski Chancery Court; Jno. E. Martineau, Chancellor.

Action by the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons and another against Walter E. Taylor, Collector of Taxes. Judgment sustaining demurrer to complaint, and plaintiffs appeal. Affirmed.

Troy W. Lewis, W. C. Adamson, W. Burt Brooks, and Grover T. Owens, all of Little Rock, for appellants.

Geo. W. Emerson and Jno. W. Newman, both of Little Rock, for appellee.

McCULLOCH, C. J.

Appellant, Western Star Lodge No. 2, Free and Accepted Masons, is a subordinate organization of appellant, Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Ancient York Rite Masons of the State of Arkansas, a society incorporated by special statute, enacted by the General Assembly of the year 1846. Acts 1846, p. 136.

Appellants instituted this action to restrain the tax collector of Pulaski county from collecting the taxes assessed against the personal property of Western Star Lodge. The contention is that the property of Western Star Lodge is exempted from taxation under a provision of the Constitution, which exempts "buildings and grounds and materials used exclusively for public charity." Article 16, § 5, Constitution of 1874.

The court sustained a demurrer to the complaint. It is alleged in the complaint that the said Grand Lodge was incorporated under the aforesaid statute as a charitable corporation, and that all of the subordinate lodges under its jurisdictions are charitable organizations; that Western Star Lodge derives its revenues exclusively from initiation fees and annual dues of members, and from voluntary gifts from its members, and that it expends its funds for expenses, such as hall rent, purchase of paraphernalia used in conferring degrees, salaries of the secretary and tyler, dues to the Grand Lodge, and occasional luncheons at social meetings, and that the remainder is reserved for charity, dispensed by a committee of the lodge to destitute Masons, and to needy widows and orphans of deceased Masons; that said lodge does not conduct any business nor receive any funds for profit or dividends, and that no member thereof receives any pecuniary benefit from the funds in the treasury except as charity, when in need. It is also alleged that—

"The charity of the lodge is not withheld from nonmembers and the dependent families of nonmembers, and the protection is often extended to them, but the most of its charity is confined to its own members and their dependents."

The complaint contains no allegation that the property assessed has been set apart to be "used exclusively for public charity." The general allegation to that effect is...