In re Mountain State College, Inc.
| Decision Date | 17 November 1936 |
| Docket Number | 8433. |
| Citation | 188 S.E. 480,117 W.Va. 819 |
| Parties | In re MOUNTAIN STATE COLLEGE, Inc., ASSESSMENT. |
| Court | West Virginia Supreme Court |
Submitted November 11, 1936.
Syllabus by the Court.
Property belonging to a commercial college or school (conducted for profit or private gain), if used for educational purposes, is exempt from taxation under section 1, article 10 of the State Constitution, as amended, and Code 1931, 11-3-9.
Error to Circuit Court, Wood County.
Proceeding in the matter of the Mountain State College, Inc. Assessment. To review a ruling of the Circuit Court exempting the property of the college from taxation, Fred L. Fox, State Tax Commissioner, brings error.
Affirmed.
Homer A. Holt, Atty. Gen., J. F. Bouchelle, Asst. Atty. Gen., and E. B. Pennybacker, of Parkersburg, for plaintiff in error.
Adams & Moats, of Parkersburg, for Mountain State College, Inc.
This is a statutory proceeding under Code 1931, 11-3-24(a), 11-3-25 as amended by chapter 41, Acts Regular Session 1933, for the review of the assessment of real estate owned by petitioner Mountain State College, Inc., a corporation, in the city of Parkersburg. The property, consisting of a lot 50 feet by 70 feet at the southeastern corner of Sixteenth and Spring streets in the city and a three-story brick building thereon is used by the petitioner in the conduct of a commercial college or school, for profit. The courses of study prescribed and maintained by the institution, follow: "Bookkeeping and Accountancy, time required, 9 to 12 months, 84 term hours; Higher Accounting (C.P.A.), time required, 20 to 24 months, 151 term hours; Stenographic Course, time required, 8 to 10 months, 54 term hours; Secretarial Course, time required, 11 to 14 months, 95 term hours; Business Administration Course, time required, 16 to 19 months, 111 term hours; Miscellaneous, (1) Money, Banking and Investment, 3 hours credit; (2) Salesmanship and Personality, 3 hours credit; (3) Advertising, 3 hours credit." The state seeks a reversal of the ruling of the circuit court, exempting the property from taxation.
Section 1, article 10 of the State Constitution, as amended, provides that "property used for educational, literary, scientific, religious or charitable purposes; all cemeteries and public property may, by law, be exempted from taxation." The pertinent parts of the present statute effectuating the constitutional provision ensue: "All property, real and personal, described in this section, and to the extent herein limited, shall be exempt from taxation, that is to say: * * * Cemeteries; property belonging to colleges, seminaries, academies, and free schools, if used for educational, literary or scientific purposes, including books, apparatus, annuities, money and furniture; * * * property used for charitable purposes, and not held or leased out for profit; all real estate * * * used exclusively by any college or university society as a literary hall, or as a dormitory or clubroom, if not leased or otherwise used with a view to profit; all property belonging to benevolent associations, not conducted for private profit; property belonging to any public institution for the education of the deaf, dumb or blind, or any hospital not held or leased out for profit; * * * homes for children or for the aged, friendless or infirm, not conducted for private profit; * * * all property, including the principal thereof, and the income therefrom, held for a term of years or otherwise under a bona fide trust deed, transfer or assignment, by a trustee or trustees required by the terms of such trust to apply, annually, the income derived from such property to education, religion, charity and cemeteries, when not used for private purposes or profit." Code 1931, 11-3-9.
The questions for determination are (1) whether a commercial school is within the definition of college, seminary, or academy; and (2)...
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