Salem Lyceum v. City of Salem

• Decision Date: 20 May 1891
• Citation: 154 Mass. 15,27 N.E. 672
• Parties: SALEM LYCEUM v. CITY OF SALEM.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

154 Mass. 15

27 N.E. 672

SALEM LYCEUM v. CITY OF SALEM.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

May 20, 1891

Report from superior court, Essex county; ROBERT C PITMAN, Judge.

HEADNOTES

Taxation 2346

371 ----

371III Property Taxes

371III(F) Exemptions

371III(F)1 In General

371k2345 Schools, Colleges and Universities, and Property Used for Educational Purposes

371k2346 In General.

(Formerly 371k242(1))

Literary corporation which uses its hall for only six or eight lectures annually, and rents it to others rest of time for lectures, concerts, etc., is not using it within Pub.St. c 11, § 5, cl. 3, exempting from taxation real estate belonging to literary institutions, "occupied by them or their officers for purposes for which they were incorporated," and it is immaterial how income from rentals is expended. To render property exempt, principal occupation must be by corporation itself.

COUNSEL

S.C Bancroft and N.J. Holden, for plaintiff.

F.L Evans, for defendant.

OPINION

W. ALLEN, J.

Pub.St c. 11, § 5, cl. 3, exempts from taxation "the personal property of literary, benevolent, charitable, and scientific institutions incorporated within this commonwealth, and the real estate belonging to such institutions, occupied by them or their officers for the purposes for which they were incorporated." The plaintiff was incorporated in the year 1852 by a special act "for the purpose of diffusing knowledge and promoting intellectual improvement in the city of Salem." The plaintiff owns a lot of land in Salem, upon which is a building containing a large hall and two small anterooms and the necessary passage-ways, but no other rooms. This action is to recover taxes assessed upon said real estate, and paid under protest, and the only question presented on the report is whether the estate was exempt from taxation under the statute cited above. It is very clear that the finding of the court that the substantial use and occupation of the real estate were not for the purposes for which the corporation was organized was sustained by the evidence. There was evidence to show that the plaintiff had occupied the hall for six or eight evenings in the winter of each year, except the winter of 1886, for a course of lectures upon literary and scientific subjects; that at all other times the hall had been held for the purposes of being let, and had been let to any persons who applied and paid for the same. The occupation of the hall for the various purposes for which rental was paid to the plaintiffs, as for lectures, concerts, shows, entertainments, conventions, and other purposes, for which a hall is commonly used, was very much in excess of its occupancy by the plaintiff itself; and the income derived from the letting of the hall largely exceeded the income from the lectures for which alone the hall was occupied by the plaintiff. The...