Trustees of Academy of Richmond County v. City Council of Augusta

• Decision Date: 22 December 1892
• Citation: 17 S.E. 61,90 Ga. 634
• Parties: TRUSTEES OF ACADEMY OF RICHMOND COUNTY v. CITY COUNCIL OF AUGUSTA.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

17 S.E. 61

90 Ga. 634

TRUSTEES OF ACADEMY OF RICHMOND COUNTY v. CITY COUNCIL OF AUGUSTA.

Supreme Court of Georgia

December 22, 1892

Syllabus by the Court.

1. Lands held in trust under the act of July 31, 1783, and subsequent acts, vesting in trustees funds arising from the sale and lease of certain lands of the state for the erection and maintenance of a public academy in the county of Richmond, are exempt from municipal taxation, though separate from the tract on which the academy is situated, and used only as a means of income for the institution, the same being public property of the state. Const. art. 7, § 2, par. 2 (Code, § 5182;) Code, § 798.

2. Where trustees, as tenants in common, own choses in action which are taxable as private property, and some of the trustees reside within and some without the limits of a municipal corporation, the corporation may tax the pro rata shares of those trustees residing within, but cannot tax the shares of those residing without, such limits. This is true irrespective of the question as to whether a majority or minority of the trustees reside within the municipality.

Error from superior court, Richmond county; H. C. Roney, Judge.

Action by the trustees of the Academy of Richmond County against the city council of Augusta to enjoin the collection of taxes assessed against the property of petitioners. There was a judgment refusing the injunction, and the petitioners bring error. Reversed.

Where trustees, as tenants in common, own choses in action which are taxable as private property, and some of the trustees reside within and some without the limits of a municipal corporation, the corporation may tax the pro rata shares of those trustees residing within, but cannot tax the shares of those residing without, such limits; and this is true irrespective of the question as to whether a majority or minority of the trustees reside within the municipality.

The following is the official report:

The board of trustees of the Academy of Richmond County sought to restrain the city council of Augusta from the collection of an execution for city taxes for the year 1892, issued against said academy. The judge below refused to grant the relief prayed, and petitioners except.

From the petition and exhibits thereto the following appears: The city has assessed for taxation real estate of petitioner at $73,400 and personalty at $42,360. On July 31, 1783, an act was passed for laying out the reserve land in Augusta and the erection of an academy, which vested the money arising from the sales of lots in the hands of commissioners as trustees to carry out the intention of the act and to erect an academy, and their heirs and successors in office, forever in trust for the sole use of said church or academy. On January 27, 1785, it was enacted that all public schools established by public money of the state should be a part of the state university. On August 14, 1786, the trustees were authorized to lease out the commons of Augusta, the rent to be considered as part of the funds of the academy, and on February 13, 1797, an act was passed providing, among other things, that a majority of the trustees residing in Richmond county should constitute a board of trustees for the academy and for the town of Augusta. The city council of Augusta was incorporated by act of January 31, 1798. On December 15 1815, it was enacted that the trustees of the academy, or a majority of them, could establish a seminary on the Sand Hills, near Augusta, to be held and governed under the same rules as said institution, which petitioners proceeded to do carrying it on until the close of the late war, when they placed the property under the lease in the hands of another board of trustees for this purpose. On December 21, 1819, the act of January 27, 1785, was amended, establishing the state university, and the trustees of the academy, then in office, having been named therein, were authorized to have and use a common seal when they were acting as a corporate body. By act of December 18, 1820, all the real estate belonging to or attached to the different academies of this state was exempted from taxation, together with all such academies as might thereafter be established. Under these acts petitioners have conducted and carried on for more than 100 years an academy in accordance with the terms of the acts calling it into existence. In October, 1835, a contract was entered into between petitioners and the city council of Augusta, by which petitioners quitclaimed to the city council all their title and interest to the land included in the corporate limits of the city known as the "East" and "South" commons, with certain exceptions not necessary to be here mentioned; the city council agreeing to pay petitioners annually $1,200, and that whenever sales should be made by the city council of any portion of the premises to the amount of $30,000, the proceeds of subsequent sales should be equally divided between the parties. While this continued of force no taxes were assessed by the city council against this property to which it held title, and in which petitioners had an undivided one-half interest in the proceeds of sale. Questions having arisen between petitioners and the city council as to the management of this property and the true interest of each in it, a bill in equity was filed to adjudicate all questions growing out of the contract, and in January, 1891, a decree was made, pursuant to which a deed was executed by the city council, apportioning between the two corporations the unsold portions of the vacant land on the commons, so that from that date the lots so conveyed back to the trustees became and remained their property for the purposes specified in the original acts under which they were incorporated. Since 1878 petitioners have kept open the academy as a high school for white boys of Richmond county, and it is now the only high school for that purpose located in Augusta. Separate and independent organization exist for the common schools and for the high school for girls, which system is supported and maintained by taxation annually. The only sources for the maintenance and support of the academy is the income from investments made of money arising from the sales of lots on the commons made by itself and the city council. A large portion of the investments from such income were lost by reason of the war, and the income since the war is barely sufficient to pay the salaries of teachers and keep the academy in repair. If the tax on the realty is to be paid by petitioners, it will be taken out of the academy income, and necessarily lessen the ability to pay the teachers and conduct the academy high school. All the property petitioners have which brings in an income has arisen from investments of the proceeds of sales of lots, except $5,000, bequeathed by Mrs. Tubman to the petitioners, she being the grantor, in a deed of gift to the county board of education, of property now the situs of the female high school, and in which provision is made for reversion to petitioners, if that high school is not kept up under the state law. After the conveyance in settlement, and under the decree of 1891, petitioners made efforts to sell the lands on the South commons, but have failed to do so, except as to four small vacant lots for a small sum. If this realty is held subject to city taxes, the income of the school will be so reduced as to seriously impair their ability to keep up a first-class school and academy. Petitioners claim that under the legislation and facts mentioned and under the constitution of 1877, (Code, 5182,) carried into effect by act of December 11, 1878, the realty which it is endeavored to subject is exempt from taxation, because (1) the academy was instituted and is supported by funds arising from property set apart by legislative acts of the state, and is to be considered as a part of the University of Georgia, its property exempt from taxation in the same manner and to the same extent as the property of that institution; and (2) that the vacant land assessed for taxation is not liable to taxation, it being public property, not held for private purposes, and bringing in no income.

As to the personalty assessed for taxation petitioners allege the following: Richard Tubman, who died in 1836, devised all his real estate in Augusta, after the death of his wife, to petitioners, the annual product thereof to be by them appropriated to the erection of a poorhouse in the county and the support of its inhabitants. The life tenant died in June, 1885. Afterwards a controversy arose between petitioners and the city council and the county commissioners, which was finally decided by the supreme court. 77 Ga. 517. After receiving possession, petitioners decided that a lot be purchased in or near the city, suitable to erect a poorhouse upon, to be paid for out of the income from the property, as soon as sufficient, and thereafter, in October, 1888, purchased a tract of land located in the county beyond the city limits, and made it the situs of the trust. By decree of April, 1887, petitioners were authorized to sell all of the realty in the city, and invest the proceeds in bonds, and in April, 1887, were authorized to sell privately certain portions of the property. After such sales had been made the title to no realty in the city stood in the names of petitioners as trustees under the will of Richard Tubman, on January 1, 1892, the date when, by law, taxes for municipal purposes are assessable, except as security for payment of the purchase money. Many of the sales were on time, and the notes running to maturity and unpaid, and which were not invested pursuant to the orders of court mentioned, aggregate $42,360. The parties in...