Sachem's Head Property Owners' Ass'n v. Town of Guilford

• Decision Date: 13 January 1931
• Parties: SACHEM'S HEAD PROPERTY OWNERS' ASS'N v. TOWN OF GUILFORD.
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court

152 A. 877

112 Conn. 515

SACHEM'S HEAD PROPERTY OWNERS' ASS'N v. TOWN OF GUILFORD.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

January 13, 1931

Case Reserved from Superior Court, New Haven County; Carl Foster Judge.

Action by the Sachem's Head Property Owners' Association against the Town of Guilford. From a decision of the board of relief of the Town of Guilford refusing to cancel or strike from the tax list of 1928 an assessment against the plaintiff on its water supply system, the plaintiff appealed to the superior court. Case reserved by the superior court on an agreed statement of facts for the advice of the Supreme Court of Errors.

Decree in accordance with opinion.

J Birney Tuttle, of New Haven, for plaintiff.

Robert C. Stoddard, of New Haven, for defendant.

Argued before MALTBIE, HAINES, HINMAN, BANKS, and AVERY, JJ.

HINMAN, J.

Many of the facts material to the present inquiry were involved in Guilford-Chester Water Co. v. Guilford, 107 Conn 519, 141 A. 880, and were summarized in the statement of that case (page 521 et seq., of 107 Conn., 141 A. 880), which included an outline of the objects and powers of the plaintiff Association as set forth in its charter, the situation formerly existing as to water supply, the steps taken towards providing such a supply, the contract entered into with the water company (then and now referred to as Exhibit B), and the acts done under and pursuant thereto. It was decided in that case that the water mains are personal property, that the contract effected a sale thereof by the water company to the present appellant, with a lease to and right of repurchase in the water company, and that the property was taxable, if at all, against the association, as such owner. The question as to whether it is so taxable (not then determined, as the association was not a party) is presented by this appeal.

The water supply system owned by the plaintiff consists of a main extending from the association boundary line to Jones bridge where it connects with the mains of the Guilford-Chester Water Company-the only available source of supply; mains within the territorial limits of the association; also a main extending beyond and outside the limits of the association to Vineyard Point, the residents of which use water from the system, paying the same rates as inhabitants of the association district. It is agreed that, if this system, or any or it, is held to be taxable, a fair apportionment of the total assessment of $25,000 would be $10,000 upon the mains within the territorial boundaries of the association, $12,000 upon the main extending from the boundary to Jones Bridge, and $3,000 upon the extension to Vineyard Point.

The questions propounded upon this reservation may be stated in condensed form as follows: Is the Sachem's Head Property Owners' Association a municipal corporation within the meaning of chapter 319 of the Public Acts of 1927? Is all of the water system hereinbefore described exempt from taxation by the town of Guilford by virtue of subdivision 4 of section 1 of that chapter? Are any of the water mains installed in accordance with the contract, Exhibit B, taxable by the town of Guilford against the Sachem's Head Property Owners' Association? If some of the mains so installed are taxable, what mains are taxable and what are not?

The appellant association contends that all of these mains are exempt from taxation under the provisions of section 1 of chapter 319 of the Public Acts of 1927 (now section 1163 of the General Statutes), that, " (4) except as otherwise provided by law, property belonging to *** a municipal corporation of this state used for a public purpose" shall be exempt from taxation. The first question raised is whether the association is a municipal corporation within the purview of this statutory provision. The attributes which are generally regarded as distinctive of and constituting a municipal corporation are possessed by this association to an extent amply sufficient to bring it within that designation. It is created by charter from the state. 18 Special Laws 1921, p. 866. A community of prescribed area is thereby constituted a body politic and corporate, with corporate name and continuous succession, for the purpose and with the authority of subordinate self-government and improvement to regulate local and internal affairs of the designated territory, through officers selected by the corporation. 1 McQuillin on Municipal Corporations (2d Ed.) § 126; 1 Dillon on Municipal Corporations (5th Ed.) §§ 31, 32; 43 Corpus Juris, p. 65. Its status as such municipal corporation is not affected, as the appellee urges, by the facts that its territorial limits are embraced within those of the town of Guilford, and that the latter retains and exercises certain governmental functions in the same territory. The situation is analogous to instances, not infrequent in this state, such as where a city is contained within, or coterminous in territory with, a town; as in such situations, both the town and the association are municipalities, possessing individual, although somewhat interrelated attributes, and each performing different functions and duties and exercising...