The Manhattan Masonic Temple Association v. Rhodes

• Decision Date: 07 March 1931
• Docket Number: 29,814
• Parties: THE MANHATTAN MASONIC TEMPLE ASSOCIATION, of Manhattan, Appellant, v. VIOLA RHODES, as County Treasurer of Riley County, and THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF THE COUNTY OF RILEY, Appellees
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court

296 P. 734

132 Kan. 646

THE MANHATTAN MASONIC TEMPLE ASSOCIATION, of Manhattan, Appellant, v. VIOLA RHODES, as County Treasurer of Riley County, and THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF THE COUNTY OF RILEY, Appellees

No. 29,814

Supreme Court of Kansas

March 7, 1931

Decided January, 1931.

Appeal from Riley district court; FRED R. SMITH, judge.

Judgment affirmed.

SYLLABUS

SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.

1. TAXATION -- Exemptions -- Masonic Property. Plaintiff sought to recover taxes paid under protest on two city lots and a Masonic temple occupying them. The temple was a two-story building with basement, containing lodge room, anterooms lobby and cloakrooms, a clubroom, kitchen and banquet hall. Personalty in the temple included Masonic books and papers, ritualistic paraphernalia, card tables and billiard and pool tables. Lodge meetings and social gatherings of Masonic bodies were held in the temple. These Masonic bodies teach and practice benevolence and charity. The temple has no rental income and is maintained by contributions from the Masonic Organizations which use it. Held, the property is not so exclusively used for purposes of benevolence and charity as to bring it within constitutional and statutory exemptions from taxation--following Mason v. Zimmerman, 81 Kan. 799, 106 P. 1005.

2. STATUTES--Tax Exemptions Strictly Construed. The rule of statutory construction concerning exemptions from taxation in this jurisdiction is: "Taxation is the rule; exemption is the exception, and statutes granting exemption from taxation are strictly construed"--following Washburn College v. Comm'rs of Shawnee Co., 8 Kan. 344; Griswold v. Quinn, 97 Kan. 611, 615, 156 P. 761; State, ex rel., v. Shawnee County Comm'rs, ante, p. 233, 294 P. 915.

J. R. Hyland, of Washington, for the appellant.

Walter Reed Gage, county attorney, Hal E. Harlan and A. M. Johnston, both of Manhattan, for the appellees.

C. B. Randall, of Topeka, as amicus curiae.

Dawsonm J., Johnston, C. J., not sitting.

OPINION

DAWSON, J.:

The Manhattan Masonic Temple Association brought this action against the county treasurer and the board of county commissioners of Riley county to recover certain taxes which it paid under protest on December 19, 1928.

These taxes had been assessed on two city lots in Manhattan owned by plaintiff and upon which there is a building familiarly known as a Masonic temple. A relatively small part of the taxes were assessed on plaintiff's personal property in the temple.

The action was based on the theory that the temple property was devoted to benevolent and charitable purposes and thus entitled to exemption from taxation.

Defendant's answer joined issue and the facts were developed without much controversy. The trial court made extended findings of fact favorable to defendants, and concluded--

"That the property in question is not used or occupied exclusively, immediately and directly for benevolent or charitable purposes, and is not exempt from taxation."

Judgment was entered accordingly. Plaintiff appeals, contending that the uses to which the property was devoted were benevolent and charitable within the meaning of the pertinent law which reads:

"The legislature shall provide for a uniform and equal rate of assessment and taxation; but all property used exclusively for state, county, municipal, literary, educational, scientific, religious, benevolent and charitable purposes, and personal property to the amount of at least two hundred dollars for each family, shall be exempted from taxation." (Kan. Const., art. 11, § 1.)

The statute enacted pursuant to the constitutional provision was amended in the Laws of 1929, chapter 283, but when this cause of action arose it provided, among other matters, the following:

"That the property described in this section, to the extent herein limited, shall be exempt from taxation:

. . . .

"Third, All buildings and parts of buildings belonging to . . . benevolent associations, used exclusively for . . . benevolent purposes, together with lands not exceeding five acres owned and occupied by such institutions, and attached thereto, if not leased or otherwise used with a view to profit; and all books, papers, furniture, apparatus and instruments belonging to such associations, and used exclusively for . . . benevolent purposes." (R. S. 79-201.)

The most significant of the trial court's findings of fact were these:

"1. That plaintiff is a corporation duly organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the state of Kansas, and having its principal place of business at Manhattan, in Riley county, state of Kansas. . . .

"3. That section 2 of the amended charter of said plaintiff corporation provides as follows:

"'SEC. 2. That this corporation is organized, not for profit, and that the purposes for which it is formed are: The erection of a Masonic temple; to purchase, acquire title to, own, control, and manage and to sell, convey and dispose of real estate and personal property of any nature necessary in the erection, control and maintenance of a Masonic temple.'

"6. That the Masonic temple building is of two stories with basement, and in general consists of a lodge room with requisite anterooms, in which are kept ritualistic paraphernalia and which are used for initiation purposes; a large lobby and a number of cloakrooms; a room largely used by De Molay, in which is a billiard table and other social equipment; a library containing Masonic books and papers and card tables; a clubroom equipped with billiard and pool tables and a well-equipped kitchen and banquet hall.

"7. That in said building was contained and owned by said corporation certain personal property used in connection with the building by said Masonic and auxiliary lodges and orders. That the assessed valuation of the said real estate for the year 1928 was $ 37,000; and the personal property, $ 1,100.

"8. That the orders and lodges using said building and personal property as aforesaid, and their approximate memberships March 1, 1928, are as follows: LaFayette Lodge No. 16, A. F. & A. M., 700; Order of the Eastern Star, 600; Royal Arch Chapter, No. 16, 300; Oriental Commandery, No. 48, 175; Manhattan Council, No. 19, 100; Social Order of Beauceant, No. 30, 75.

. . . .

"14. The object and purposes of the Masonic order, and of the Masonic lodges of Kansas, are to inculcate in their members the principles of morality, temperance, benevolence and charity, and to teach them their duty to one another and to all mankind; to care for the sick and afflicted among their members, to relieve the wants of the needy and destitute, and to promote the general good and welfare of their members and their families, or the widows and orphans of such members.

. . . .

"24. That the Masonic temple building in question is not used directly, immediately and exclusively in dispensing charity."

Running through the decided cases of American courts, two views of tax exemption statutes can readily be discerned--one of strict construction and the other of liberal construction. Counsel for appellant has brought together a respectable number of cases from jurisdictions where the liberal view of tax exemptions prevails. Thus in Horton v. Colorado Springs Society, 64 Colo. 529, 173 P. 61, L. R. A. 1918E 966, a Masonic temple of similar character to the one at bar, and devoted to the same purposes, was held to be exempt from taxation under constitutional and statutory provisions substantially like our own. The case is instructive, but the opinion frankly recognizes the two judicial attitudes towards tax-exemption statutes thus:

"There are two lines...