State v. Fisher

• Decision Date: 09 June 1902
• Parties: STATE (PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF RELIEF FOR DISABLED MINISTERS & WIDOWS AND ORPHANS OF DECEASED MINISTERS, Prosecutor) v. FISHER, Town Collector.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

52 A. 228

68 N.J.L. 143

STATE (PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF RELIEF FOR DISABLED MINISTERS & WIDOWS AND ORPHANS OF DECEASED MINISTERS, Prosecutor)

v. FISHER, Town Collector.

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

June 9, 1902.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Certiorari by the state, on the prosecution of the Presbyterian Board of Relief for Disabled Ministers and the Widows and Orphans of Deceased Ministers, against Daniel L. Fisher, collector of the town of Newton, in Sussex county, to review an assessment. Assessment affirmed.

Argued February term, 1902, before FORT, PITNEY, and HENDRICKSON, JJ.

Henry C. Hunt, for prosecutor.

John L. Swayze, for defendant.

HENDRICKSON, J. This is a suit brought to test the legality of a tax assessment made against the prosecutor in the town of Newton, county of Sussex, for the year 1901. The prosecutor is a charitable institution, incorporated under the laws of the state of Pennsylvania, and at the time of the assessment it was the owner in fee under a devise and bequest from Henry W. Merriam, deceased, of the late residence of the latter in Newton, consisting of a large mansion house, furnished, with barn and greenhouses, together with the lot on which they were erected, containing nearly five acres of land. The property so devised was charged with a trust, the purpose of which was declared to be that of maintaining the residence, grounds, and buildings as a home for disabled Presbyterian ministers and the widows of Presbyterian ministers, to be known as the "Merriam Home." There was a further bequest in the will to the prosecutor of $30,000, in trust to securely invest the same, and apply the Income thereof for the maintenance of the property in good condition, the surplus of the income, if any, to be applied to the expenses of the home or the other objects of the board. The case shows that the mansion house and premises, with the furniture and other equipment, were transferred to the prosecutor in November, 1900, and that a committee was appointed by the presbytery of Newton, as recommended by the will, to be intrusted by the prosecutor with the actual oversight and care of the property in the work of maintaining the same in good condition, and that the committee has entered upon the administration of its trust. It further appears that there have been no inmates at the home during the past year, and that the same has been in charge of a care taker, and that the only income from the property has been from the proceeds of the sales of some of the cultivated plants and flowers in the greenhouses, which have been used towards defraying in part the expenses of the maintenance of the property. The trust fund of $30,000 was not transferred to the prosecutor until about the month of October,

1901. The taxes in question were laid upon the premises above described in the name of the prosecutor upon a rating of $19,000, and amount to $275. The prosecutor claims exemption from these taxes under the general tax law (3 Gen. St. p. 3320, § 200), which...