Inst. Of Living v. Town & City Of Hartford.

• Decision Date: 19 December 1946
• Citation: 133 Conn. 258,50 A.2d 822
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: INSTITUTE OF LIVING v. TOWN & CITY OF HARTFORD.

133 Conn. 258

50 A.2d 822

INSTITUTE OF LIVING

v.TOWN & CITY OF HARTFORD.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

July 19, 1946.

On Reargument Dec. 19, 1946.

Appeal from Court of Common Pleas, Hartford County; Pickett, Judge.

Tax proceeding wherein the Institute of Living, a hospital for the mentally ill, appealed from the action of the Board of Review of the Town and City of Hartford including the properties of the hospital in the list of taxable property of the City of Hartford. From a judgment of the Court of Common Pleas in Hartford county, on a trial to the court, sustaining the appeal and ordering the properties stricken from the grand list, the town and City of Hartford appealed, and the appellee filed a motion for reargument which was granted.

Error, judgment set aside and case remanded with direction.

Frank Covello and Samuel H. Aron, both of Hartford, for appellant.

Lucius F. Robinson, Jr., and Frank Chapman, both of Hartford, for appellee.

Before MALTBIE, C. J., and BROWN, ELLS, and DICKENSON, JJ., and WYNNE, Superior Court Judge.

MALTBIE, Chief Justice.

The question presented in this appeal from the board of tax review of the defendant city is whether the property of the plaintiff, a hospital for the mentally ill incorporated under the laws of Connecticut, is exempt from taxation. Previous to 1901, its property was exempt under a law which authorized it to hold real and personal property to an amount not exceeding $400,000, ‘which shall be free from taxation.’ 6 Spec.Laws 181. In that year the exemption was qualified by excepting taxes laid by the school district within which the property was located. 13 Spec.Laws 1025. In 1927, charter of the plaintiff was amended to enable it to hold real and personal property to the amount of $3,000,000, and the act provided that its property ‘Shall be subject to taxation and entitled to tax exemption only in accordance with the provisions of the general statutes.’ 20 Spec.Laws 390. Its claim is based therefore upon the general statute exempting certain property and specifically upon subsection (7) of § 1163 of the General Statutes, which exempts, subject to certain exceptions not material to the issue before us, ‘The real property of, or held in trust for, a Connecticut corporation organized exclusively for scientific, educational, literary, historical or charitable purposes or for two or more such purposes and used exclusively for carrying out one or more of such purposes and the personal property of, or held in trust for, any such corporation,’ provided that none of its officers, members or employees receives, or shall in the future receive, any pecuniary profit from its operations, except reasonable compensation for services in effecting one or more of such purposes or as proper beneficiary of its strictly charitable purposes, and further provided that quadrennially a statement shall be filed with the local board of assessors of the town or city where the property is located. The trial court found that the plaintiff's property was exempt under this provision and the defendant has appealed. One of its claims is that, as the plaintiff is a hospital, it can claim exemption only under another provision of § 1163, subsection (14), that, subject to an exception not now material, ‘All property of, or held in trust for, any hospital society or sanatorium which is supported wholly or in part by state appropriations' is exempt, and that the plaintiff cannot prevail because it admittedly receives nothing from the state for its support.

Our statute of charitable uses adopted in 1702 provided that property given or granted for the maintenance of the ministry of the gospel in the colony, or of schools of learning, or for the relief of the poor, or for ‘any other public and charitable use’ should be continued to the use or uses for which the property was given and to no other use whatsoever and should be exempt from taxation. See Statutes 1808, p. 433. In the Revision of 1821 such property was subjected to taxation to a limited extent; Rev.1821, p. 446; and that continued to be the law until 1851. Rev.1849, p. 604. In 1851 certain properties were exempted from taxation, including ‘such portions of buildings as are exclusively occupied as colleges, academies, school-houses, churches or public infirmaries; all buildings belonging to scientific, literary, benevolent or ecclesiastical societies, used exclusively for scientific, literary, benevolent or religious purposes.’ Public Acts 1851, Chap. 47, § 6. The word ‘infirmaries' meant those institutions which we now call hospitals; in the 18th century ‘infirmary’ was ‘the common name for a public hospital.’ Oxford Dictionary, Vol. 5, Pt. 2. With some slight changes in phraseology and certain additions, these two classifications of exempt property remained a part of our law until 1925. See Public Acts 1921, Chap. 109.

Tracing the history of another provision in the general exemption statute, we find that in 1854 the legislature voted an annual appropriation of $2,000 to the General Hospital Society of Connecticut ‘for the support of charity patients in said hospital’; 3 Spec.Laws 309; and that in 1861 a similar act was passed in favor of the Hartford Hospital. 5 Spec.Laws 452. In 1856, a statute was enacted which provided: ‘* * * all property, real and personal, which has been, or may be granted or given to ‘The Hartford Hospital,’ and by them invested and held for the use of said institution, shall with the income thereof, remain exempt from taxation'; Public Acts 1856, Chap. 82; and this provision was incorporated into the general exemption statute in the Revision of 1866, p. 708. In the Revision of 1875, p. 155, the clause was changed to read: ‘All property of the General Hospital Society of Connecticut and the Hartford Hospital’ shall be exempt; and this provision was retained in the Revision of 1888, p. 851. The General Assembly thereafter increased the number of hospitals to which it made appropriations until in 1895 they numbered five, but the provision that the money should be expended for charity patients was continued in force. Public Acts 1895, Chap. 278. In that year a statute was passed which exempted from taxation ‘All property of any hospital society which is supported wholly or in part by state appropriations.’ Public Acts 1895, Chap. 327. This provision was incorporated into and continued as a part of the general exemption statute until 1925. See Public Acts 1921, Chap. 109.

The General Assembly then began a series of enactments designed ‘To draw more precisely the line between property which, because of its devotion to public use, ought to be exempt and that which ought not to be.’ Masonic Building Ass'n v. Town of Stamford, 119 Conn. 53, 58, 174 A. 301, 303. Subsection (4) of § 1 of chapter 245 of the Public Acts of 1925 exempted the personal property of ‘Scientific, educational, literary or benevolent institutions,’ provided their assets were permanently held for and devoted to such uses and that their members could not by any possibility receive for their personal use any of the property of the corporation in the event of its dissolution and that the members could not by any possibility receive any financial benefit from their membership, and further that a statement of property should be filed with the board of assessors; and the act also exempted the real estate owned and actually occupied and used by any such corporation reasonably necessary to carry out one or more of its purposes. Subsequent subsections separately exempted, subject to certain qualifications, personal property owned by, or held in trust for, religious organizations; houses of religious worship, and the land on which they stood, owned by, or held in trust for the use of, any religious organization, with their pews and furniture; orphan asylums, homes for children, reformatories, infirmaries and schools owned and conducted by any religious organization, and the land on which they stood; parsonages of any ecclesiastical society to a certain value, while used solely for that purpose; and ‘All property of any hospital society which is supported wholly or in part by state appropriations.’ In 1927 this act was substantially rewritten, generally retaining the same form but with some additions and some changes in the qualifications necessary to secure exemptions; and the exemption of property of hospitals was altered to read: ‘All property of, or held in trust for, any hospital society or sanatorium which is supported wholly or in part by state appropriations.’ Public Acts 1927, Chap. 319. In 1929 certain of the subsections were again somewhat amended, but the general classifications of property as made in the 1925 act were retained, and the provisions concerning the property of hospital societies remained unchanged. Public Acts 1929, Chap. 24. The act of 1927 as amended in 1929 constitutes § 1163 of the General Statutes now in force, and, while several of its subsections have since been somewhat altered, in no instance do these changes affect the issue before us.

After we had handed down an opinion in this case, the plaintiff made a motion for a reargument based largely upon a statement in the report of a commission appointed under a special act of the General Assembly passed at its 1923 session to study the matter of exemptions from taxation, to consider whether existing statutes concerning such exemptions should be amended, and to report to the next session of the General Assembly. 19 Spec.Laws 404. The committee filed a report under date of January 1, 1925, 56 pages in length, and in that report it suggested certain changes which were to a considerable extent embodied in the act of 1925. In discussing a proposal to omit from the statute as it then stood the specific exemption of buildings and lands occupied as colleges, academies, churches and infirmaries, and to change the language of the provision which had...