People ex rel. Soc'y of Free Church of St. Mary the Virgin v. Feitner

• Decision Date: 22 November 1901
• Citation: 168 N.Y. 494,61 N.E. 762
• Parties: PEOPLE ex rel. SOCIETY OF FREE CHURCH OF ST. MARY THE VIRGIN v. FEITNER et al., Tax Com'rs.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

168 N.Y. 494

61 N.E. 762

PEOPLE ex rel. SOCIETY OF FREE CHURCH OF ST. MARY THE VIRGIN

v.FEITNER et al., Tax Com'rs.

Court of Appeals of New York.

Nov. 22, 1901.

Appeal from supreme court, appellate division, First department.

Certiorari by the people, on the relation of the Society of the Free Church of St. Mary the Virgin, against Thomas L. Feitner and others, commissioners of taxes and assessments of the city of New York. From an order of the appellate division (71 N. Y. Supp. 257) reversing an order of the special term confirming an assessment on the relator's realty, defendants appeal. Modified.

John Whalen, Corp. Counsel (James M. Ward and Andrew T. Campbell, Jr., of counsel), for appellants.

C. N. Bovee, Jr., for respondent.

HAIGHT, J.

The relator is a domestic corporation organized under chapter 218 of the Laws of 1854 exclusively for religious, charitable, benevolent, and educational purposes, and for the moral and mental improvement of men and women. It is the owner of real property located in the city of New York, consisting of a church building, a mission house, clergy house, and a rectory. The commissioners of taxes and assessments assessed the mission house at $10,000, the clergy house at $12,000, and the rectory at $8,000. The special term deducted $2,000 from the assessment against the clergy house, and then confirmed the assessment. The appellate division has reversed the order of the special term, holding that the relator was not properly assessed for any sum whatever.

The general tax law of 1896 (chapter 908, § 4, subd. 7, as amended by chapter 371, Laws 1897) provides that ‘the real property of a corporation or association organized exclusively for the moral or mental improvement of men or women, or for religious, bible, tract, charitable, benevolent, missionary, * * * or for two or more such purposes, and used exclusively for carrying out thereupon one or more of such purposes; and the personal property of any such corporation shall be exempt from taxation.’ Upon the relator's real property is a large church building devoted to religious services, which is concededly exempt. The first controversy arises with reference to the mission house, located at the southeast corner of the church. Upon the first floor of this house is a chapel, where there is an altar used daily for religious services. This building is in charge of three sisters, who have a general reception room upon the first floor, where all persons desiring to consult them are received. The second floor is also occupied by a chapel, and the third floor by the women's guild; the rooms being used regularly three times each week,-one for the mothers' meeting, one for the guild girls, and one for younger girls and children. The fourth floor is used as the living rooms of the sisters, and the fifth is their kitchen. It appears that the work of the sisters is mainly carried on by guilds organized for the purpose of doing charitable and missionary work in connection with the church among the poor, and the furnishing of the destitute with food and clothing, looking after them when they are sick, and inducing them to attend the meetings of the guilds, with the ultimate object of making them members of the church. The daily use of the chapel for religious services, the constant reception of women and children for counsel and advice, the distribution of charity, with the meeting of the guilds day and night, would seem to make the residence of the sisters in the building necessary and an incident to the work carried on there, and not an appropriation of the building for other purposes than that for which the relator was incorporated. We are therefore inclined to the view that this building is exempt.

The clergy...