Old South Soc. v. City of Boston
| Decision Date | 04 September 1879 |
| Citation | 127 Mass. 378 |
| Parties | Old South Society v. City of Boston |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
Suffolk. Contract to recover the amount of a tax assessed by the defendant city upon the real estate of the plaintiff, on May 1, 1875, and paid by the plaintiff under protest. The case was submitted to the judgment of this court upon an agreed statement of facts, the substance of which appears in the opinion.
Judgment for the defendant.
L. M Child, for the plaintiff.
C. F Kittredge, for the defendant.
It was decided by this court, in Lowell Meeting-house v. Lowell, 1 Met. 538, that the exemption of houses of religious worship from taxation extended to that part of the property only which was used as a place of worship, and for purposes connected with it, such as the vestry, the furnace, and the like. And by the St. of 1841, c. 127, reenacted in the Gen. Sts. c. 11, § 5, it is provided that portions of such houses appropriated for purposes other than religious worship shall be taxed at the value thereof to the owners of the houses. And this court also decided, in the recent case of Trinity Church v. Boston, 118 Mass. 164, that the exemption given by the statute would apply to a lot of land, purchased by a religious society for the purpose of building a house of worship, not more than sufficient in extent to meet its reasonable requirements in this respect, and devoted by such society in good faith to the erection of a church edifice, upon which the work of erection had been begun and was prosecuted with no unreasonable delay, the lot being all the real estate which the society so held.
The proper inference to be drawn from the statutes and decisions upon the subject is, that the exemption from taxation depends entirely upon the use for which the building in question is intended, and is limited by such use. There must either be an actual occupation of it as a place of religious worship, or at the least a distinct and fixed intent to use it as such otherwise, it is not a house of religious worship. An unfinished church edifice, in the process of construction, is exempt, and so also is a house of worship the use of which has been temporarily interrupted. The reason of the exemption in such cases is that, although the property is not actually in present use for purposes of religious worship, yet it is held in good faith for such uses and none other. It is plain that, on the first day of May 1875, the plaintiff...
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Old South Ass'n in Boston v. City of Boston
...as a place of religious worship, and hence together with the adjacent unoccupied land had become subject to taxation. Old South Society v. Boston, 127 Mass. 378. Taxes for the year 1877 had accrued before the enactment of the petitioner's act of incorporation. Yet the whole property was exe......
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New Orleans Bank & Trust Co. v. City of New Orleans
... ... relinquishment, 1 R. C. L. 1 ... The ... case of Old South Society v. City of Boston, 127 ... Mass. 378, involved the exemption from taxation of certain ... ...
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Third Congregational Soc. v. City of Springfield
...41 N.J.Law, 117. If any doubt arises as to the exemption claimed, it must operate most strongly against the party claiming it. Society v. Boston, 127 Mass. 378;Society v. Boston, 129 Mass. 178.DEVENS, J. Pub.St. c. 11, § 5, cl. 3, provides that “the personal property of literary, benevolent......
- Old South Ass'n in Boston v. City of Boston