People ex rel. Fix v. Trustees of Northwestern Coll.

• Decision Date: 16 June 1926
• Docket Number: No. 16907.,16907.
• Citation: 322 Ill. 120,152 N.E. 555
• Parties: PEOPLE ex rel. FIX, County Collector, v. TRUSTEES OF NORTHWESTERN COLLEGE.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

322 Ill. 120

152 N.E. 555

PEOPLE ex rel. FIX, CountyCollector,

v.TRUSTEES OF NORTHWESTERN COLLEGE.

No. 16907.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

June 16, 1926.

Error to Du Page County Court; S. L. Rathji, Judge.

Application for judgment and order of sale of property to pay delinquent taxes by George Fix, County Collector, to which objections were filed in the county court by the Trustees of Northwestern College.Objections overruled and judgment rendered, and objectors bring error.

Affirmed.Joseph A. Reuss, William R. Friedrich, and Russell W. Keeney, all of Naperville, for plaintiff in error.

C. W. Reed, State's Atty., of Naperville, for defendant in error.

DE YOUNG, J.

The corporation known as ‘Trustees of Northwestern College’ conducts a college of liberal arts, in Naperville, in Du Page County.The institution is recognized as a standard college and its courses lead to the bachelor's degree.The college is affiliated with the Evangelical Association.It has 39 instructors and approximately 600 students.The student body is drawn from 24 states, the Dominion of Canada, and foreign countries.The annual cost of conducting the college, apart from interest on the investment in land, buildings, and equipment, is about $95,000, of which substantially $50,000 is paid by the students in fees, leaving a deficit of $45,000, which is defrayed by the income from the endowment fund and by contributions.Devotional exercises are held daily in the college chapel.Students are placed on their honor to attend these exercises.They are also expected to attend public worship on Sunday at such churches of the city as they or their parents or guardians may select.The Evangelical Theological Seminary is also located in Naperville and is of the same denomination as Northwestern College.The two institutions are distinct and separately managed, and the only officers common to both are the treasurer and assistant treasurer.About two blocks south of the campus the college owns a parcel of land substantially 300 feet square, bounded by four public streets.The ground is improved by a building known as Bolton Hall, which is a remodeled residence consisting of three floors and a basement.The building contains a reception room, dining room, kitchen, laundry, a room for the matron and a member of the faculty, and quarters for 46 female students.The dining hall accommodates the students who live in the building and 18 other students who reside elsewhere.The land is further improved by a three-room cottage and a barn.The cottage is occupied by the caretaker of the property, who is a student, and his wife.The square also provides lawns and tennis courts and is used for recreation purposes by the young women who are students of the college.The charge for board and room in Bolton Hall barely equals the cost and expense of the food supplied and the service rendered, excluding interest on the investment.Young women who are students of the seminary are permittedto live in Bolton Hall after the students of the college seeking residence there have been accommodated.Taxes were extended against the block of land occupied by Bolton Hall by the taxing authorities of Du Page county.The trustees of the college, by petition, asked the board of review to exempt the property from taxation because it was used exclusively for school and religious purposes.The prayer of the petition was denied.Thereafter the trustees filed objections in the county court of Du Page county to the application of the county collector for judgment and order of sale of the property to pay delinquent taxes.The same objection that had been urged before the board of review was made in the county court.The objection was overruled and judgment was rendered, and this writ of error followed.

The sole objection filed by the plaintiff in error to the application made by the county collector is that the property in question was used exclusively for school and religious purposes and was therefore exempt.The issues in a proceeding of this character are limited to the points raised by the written objections filed, since the presumption is that all else is admitted to be correct and free from objection.Indiana, Decatur & Western Railway Co. v. People, 201 Ill. 351, 66 N. E. 293;Chicago & Alton Railroad Co. v. People, 155 Ill. 276, 40 N. E. 602.The only question presented for decision, therefore, is whether the property here involved was used exclusively for school and religious purposes.

Section 3 of article 9 of the Constitution provides that--

‘Such other property as may be used exclusively for agricultural and horticultural societies, for school, religious, cemetery and charitable purposes, may be exempted from taxation; but such exemption shall be only by general law.’

This constitutional provision is not selfexecuting.While the General Assembly may exempt from taxation all property used exclusively for school or religious purposes, it may also limit its exemption to certain classes of property so used.By the second item of section 2 of an act entitled ‘An act for the assessment of property and for the levy and collection of...