State v. Johnston
| Decision Date | 19 June 1900 |
| Citation | 46 A. 776,65 N.J.L 169 |
| Parties | STATE (LITZ et al., Prosecutors) v. JOHNSTON, Collector. |
| Court | New Jersey Supreme Court |
(Syllabus by the Court.)
Certiorari by the state, on the prosecution of Ferdinand Litz and others, against Joseph W. Johnston, collector of Eatontown township, to review a tax assessment. Assessment set aside.
Argued February term, 1900, before GARRISON and LIPPINCOTT, JJ.
Peter Backes, for prosecutors. James Steen, for defendant.
GARRISON, J.The object of this proceeding is to exempt from taxation a certain building, and the land connected with it. There are two prosecutors,—Ferdinand Litz, in whom the legal title is vested, and the Missionary Society of the Most Holy Redeemer, of the state of New York, commonly known as the "Redemptorist Fathers," in whom is the equitable estate. The ground of exemption is that the land and buildings are "used exclusively for charitable purposes." Gen. St. p. 3321.
The society in question was incorporated by the state of New York, and is one of a religious order whose head is at Rome.
Ferdinand Litz was the provincial (or local head) of the order in the United States at the time he took the title to this land, which was paid for with the money of the society, in whose favor Litz made the declaration of trust that has been exhibited in the testimony. The purposes of this order are charitable. Whether we regard the free education of the young, or the conducting of religious services, or the furnishing of spiritual aid and material assistance to a missionary priesthood, all the objects to which this order has devoted this land are exclusively charitable, in the sense in which our taxing law has been applied. Sisters of Charity v. Chatham Tp., 52 N. J. Law, 375, 20 Atl. 292; Trustees of Y. M. C. A. v. City of Paterson, 61 N. J. Law, 420, 39 Atl. 655; Cooper Hospital v. Burdsall (N. J. Sup.) 42 Atl. 853; Rescue Mission v. High (N. J. Sup.) 44 Atl. 974.
The circumstances that the legal title is in a trustee, and that the cestui que trust owes its corporate existence to the laws of a sister state, do not militate against the general policy of our state, embodied in the act referred to.
The assessment is set aside.
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