Layman Foundation v. City of Louisville

• Citation: 22 S.W.2d 622,232 Ky. 259
• Parties: LAYMAN FOUNDATION v. CITY OF LOUISVILLE et al.
• Decision Date: 20 December 1929
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

22 S.W.2d 622

232 Ky. 259

LAYMAN FOUNDATION v. CITY OF LOUISVILLE et al.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky

December 20, 1929

Appeal from Circuit Court, Jefferson Chancery Branch, Second Division.

Action between the Layman Foundation and the City of Louisville and others. From the judgment, the former appeals. Affirmed.

James W. Garrison and Hubbard & Hubbard, all of Louisville, for appellant.

Joseph E. Conkling, of Louisville, for appellees.

WILLIS J.

The Layman Foundation, a Tennessee corporation, claims exemption from taxation under section 170 of the Constitution of the state, upon the ground that it is an "institution of purely public charity" and an "institution of education not used or employed for gain by any person or corporation, and the income of which is devoted solely to the cause of education." The lower court denied the relief sought, and the Layman Foundation has prosecuted an appeal. The charter of the corporation thus defined the purposes for which it was organized:

"(1) The support of public worship, the building and maintenance of churches, parsonages, schools, hospitals, chapels, and such other religious, educational, or benevolent institutions as may be necessary or proper to the work of missionary bodies in the United States or in any foreign country, and the maintenance of all missionary undertakings.

(2) The support of any benevolent or charitable undertaking, as a lodge of Masons, Odd Fellows, hospitals for the sick houses of refuge or correction, orphan asylums and all other objects of like nature.

(3) The support of any literary or scientific undertaking, as a college or university, with powers to confer degrees; an academy; a debating society; lyceum; the establishment of a library; the support of a historical society; the organization and support of battlefield associations; the promotion of painting, music, or the fine arts; the support of boards of trades or chambers of commerce, or other objects of like nature.

(4) The support and encouragement of agriculture, horticulture, and the mechanic arts, as agricultural, horticultural societies or societies for the promotion of the mechanic arts, fairs, granges, and associations of like nature, including associations for improvement of the blood of stock, or other objects of like nature."

There is a provision also to the effect that the general welfare of society and not individual profit is the object for which the charter was obtained, and that the members are not stockholders in the legal sense of the term. No dividends or profits are divided among or distributed to the members. It was alleged that the property in Louisville which it sought to have exempted from taxation was used and occupied by the Rural Educational Association for the purposes of assisting in furthering the religious, scientific, and educational principles of the institution. The income derived from the use of the property in which a cafeteria is conducted is applied to the purposes for which the corporation was created by donating it to a school in Tennessee and to another Tennessee corporation which carried on the work. None of the charitable or educational work of the corporation, if it was such, was carried on for the service of the people of Kentucky. It is therefore unnecessary to determine whether the particular institution is one of education or charity within the meaning of our Constitution as defined by the decisions dealing with that question. City of Louisville v. So. Baptist Theological Seminary, 100 Ky. 506, 36 S.W. 995; Trustees, etc., v. City of Louisville, 100 Ky. 470, 36 S.W. 921, 40 L....