YALE ALUMNI WEEKLY
7
YALE’S TAX CASE.
[Continued from tst page.]
pa order, preserving discipline and
= — oR Proper observation of rules
ee Saat established by your
buildin or the proper ordering of the
d & as a college house, which rules
and regulations are posted in each
room in said building.
ae student occupying a room in
ra building is charged a certain sum
- the accommodation and_ service
thereby afforded him, which charge is
fipaia in the term bill so-called, regu-
arly rendered to each student at the
beginning of each term.
$ In the year 1893, in conjunction with
the erection of said White Hall; and
with the same end in view as in the
case of that structure, the building
known as Berkeley Hall, one of the
items added to the tax list of this appel-
lant as set forth in said appeal, and
assessed by said assessors, together
with said White Hall, at the sum of
$147,150, was erected by this appellant
at a cost in all of about $54,000, out of
funds therefor donated to this appellant
for college purposes.
“In the year 1896, for the purpose of
still further extending its educational
facilities and the means used for the
purposes oi education, the building
known as ‘Pierson Hall,’ being one of
the items added to the tax list of this
appellant by said board of assessors, as
set forth in its appeal, and assessed by
said board at the sum of $59,741, was
erected by this appellant at a cost in_all
of about $80,000, out of funds thereto-
fore donated to this appellant for col-
lege purposes.
“Said several buildings, White Hall,
Berkeley Hall and Pierson Hall, are
unfitted for any other use or purpose
than that to: which they are at present
devoted, to wit, as living, study and
sleeping rooms for the use of the stu-
dents occupying the same, and apart
from said use and occupation have no
substantial commercial or pecuniary
value as income-producing properties.
“The annual outgoes of this appellant,
for tuition and the other expenses of
supporting, maintaining and providing
for the institution of learning author-
ized by its act of incorporation, have
always exceeded the annual income
from its invested funds, tuition fees and
all other sources, including the amounts
received for the use and occupancy of
the rooms in said White Hall, Berke-
ley Hall and Pierson Hall, excepting
benevolent and charitable contributions,
and for several years past have so ex- |
ceeded such annual income by several
thousand dollars per annum; which sum
has been made up by such contributions
of divers persons, made for that pur-
pose, without which contributions there
would have been an annual deficit of
income over outgoes; and the tax laid
on the additions made by said assessors
to said appellant’s tax list, if collected,
must be met and paid out of such bene-
volent and charitable gifts and con-
tributions.
“While the whole net annual income
derived by the appellant from all the
college buildings containing study and
sleeping rooms, from the students oc-
cupying the same, does not exceed the
sum of $55,000, the sum of $54,000 and
over, from the income of its invested
funds and from scholarship funds, so-
called, is annually apropriated by this
appellant to the use of worthy and
needy applicants, to help them to meet
their expenses while availing them-
selves of the educational advantages
afforded by this appellant; whereby
students to the number of 160 at all
times receive their tuition gratuitously,
without the payment of any money, fee
or reward therefor, while additional
students to the number of about 270
have their tuition remitted in part, most
of the latter paying only about one-
quarter of the customary and regular
charge therefor.
“The salaries of the professors,
tutors, instructors and other officers
employed by this appellant are reason-
able and moderate in amount, and in
many cases the services of such officers
are given gratuitously, in whole or in
part,
received by them are applied by them,
in whole or in part, to the uses and pur-
poses of the college.
“For a period of nearly two hundred
years, from the erection of ‘Yale Col-
lege’ in 1717 down to the additions to
the appellant’s tax list attempted to be
made by the board of assessors of the
town of New Haven, in 1896, as set
forth in said appeal, no claim was ever
made that said buildings so occupied by
said students for living, study and
sleeping rooms, or any of them, or any
while in other cases the salaries .
other building in a like way for similar
purposes, were liable to taxation, nor
were said buildings, or any one of them,
during all that period, ever, in fact,
taxed or set in the list of the town of
New Haven or elsewhere for that pur-
pose.
“Said several buildings, to wit, White
Hall, Berkeley Hall, Pierson Hall, by
reason of the facts hereinbefore set
forth in this reason of appeal, are not
income-producing in any proper sense,
but are held, occupied and used by this
appellant solely for the purposes ex-
pressed in its act of incorporation and
as a part of the plant necessary for the
instruction of youth and ordering and
‘managing the institution authorized by
said act, in the most advantageous and
beneficial manner for the promoting of
good literature, and so are both occu-
pied exclusively as colleges and belong
to and are used exclusively by a litera-
ary and scientific society, within the
true intent and meaning of the statute
in such case provided.”
SECOND.
“The several paragraphs and the alle-
gations therein contained, set forth in
the foregoing and first reason of appeal,
are hereby referred to and made part of
this second reason of appeal, as if
stated at full length therein.
“On or about the year 1826 the in-
vested funds of this appellant were seri-
ously impaired by the failure of the
Eagle bank of New Haven, and to
make good such impairment and carry
into effect its chartered powers, and
enlarge and increase the educational
facilities of this appellant, a subscrip-
tion was set on foot which resulted in
raising a fund of $100,000, commonly
known as the ‘Centum Milia Fund,’
made up of gifts, donations and volun-
tary contributions of divers persons to
this appellant, for the uses and pur-
poses expressed in its act of incorpora-
tion.
“At the May session of the General
Assembly in 1834, and after the raising
of the ‘Centum Milia Fund,’ an act was
passed as follows, to wit: .
‘Be it enacted that the funds which
have been or may be hereafter granted,
either by the State of Connecticut or
given by any person or persons to the
corporation of the President and Fel-
lows of Yale College in New Haven,
and by them invested and held for the
use of that institution, shall, with the
income thereof, be and remain exempt
from taxation, provided, however, that
the said corporation shall never hold
in this State real estate free from taxa-
tion affording an annual income of
‘more than $6,000, and provided also
that the private property of the officers
of the institution shall not be exempt
from taxation.’
“The amounts received by this appel-
lant for the said use and occupation of
White Hall, Berkeley Hall, Pierson |
Hall and the ‘Old Gymnasium,’ and
from the other buildings owned by this
appellant and used and occupied by its
students as living, study and sleeping
rooms, are not, by reason of the facts
set out in the first reason of appeal,
income, within the true intent and
meaning of said act or of the provis-
ions of the Revised Statutes of this
State, Section 3822.
“All the real estate of this appellant,
other than the items contained in the
said tax list returned and sworn to on
the 21st day of October, 1896, and ex-
cept the buildings referred to in the
preceding paragraph, as set forth in
said appeal, do not afford an annual
income of more than $6,000, and so are
exempt from taxation, within the true
‘intent and meaning of said act of 1834
and of the provisions of the Revised
Statutes of this State, Section 3822.”
TOWN COUNSEL'S OPINION.
This appeal was entered against the
opinion of J. P. Goodhart, 85 S., town
counsel, delivered at the request of the
board of assessors fifteen months ago.
Mr. Goodhart’s opinion in substance
follows: i
The liability of the Corporation to
pay taxes depends upon the character
of the corporation and the statute laws
of this state.
The General Statutes, Section 3,620,
provides among other things that
“buildings or portions of buildings
exclusively occupied as colleges shall
be exempt from taxation.”
‘dent and professors.
A “college” is a literary institution,
or an institution for the purpose of
study and learning. It is a society of
schools incorporated for the purpose
of study and instruction. It is not, and
does not include any provision for
recreation, like gymnasiums, nor board-
ing houses and dormitories for stu-
dents. It does include libraries and
buildings used for laboratories and
recitation rooms, which are in use in
the course of the usual instruction and
ae of ae students.
e public acts of 1895; page 700
provide as follows: “The fae oe
estate which have been, or may be
given, or provided by the state, or
given by any person or persons to the
“President or Fellows of Yale College,
etc., shall, with the income thereof,
remain exempt from taxation; pro-
vided, however, that neither of said cor-
porations shall ever hold in this state
real estate free from taxation, affording
an annual income of more than $6,000.”
It is certain that the General Assembly
has not declared that the corporation
should be exempt from taxation upon
every separate piece of property which
did not itself afford an income of more
than $6,000, and I am of the opinion
that the Legislature did not so intend.
The act can be read, and the intention
of the General Assembly doubtless was,
that he corporation should hold free
from taxation real estate consisting of
one or more separate tracts, which in
the aggregate yield an income not to
exceed $6,000. .
I am, therefore, of the opinion that
real estate of the corporation, for the
purposes of taxation, should be divided |
in three parts.
1. The buildings and parts of build-
ings with the land on which such
buildings are situated, which are exclu-
sively occupied as colleges, are not
taxable. |
2. Such a part of the remainder of
the real estate and buildings of the cor-
poration which yield a yearly income
up to $6,000 are also exempt and should
not be taxed.
3. All the rest and remainder of said
corporation’s real estate, consisting of
lands, buildings, dormitories, gymna-
siums, restaurants, etc., should be as-
sessed and taxed.
PROPERTY IN QUESTION.
The list of the property belonging to
Yale University which, in the opinion
of Town Counsel J. P. Goodhart, ’85 S.,
is taxable, follows: 7
Fifteen lots with houses in
various parts of the city.. $105,442.00
Observatory property...... 24,678.00
White and Berkeley Dormi-
Retest ae ee 147,150.00
a Pid ee ee ee 59,741.00
“(hid (yi nasitti <<... <.-- 8,100.00
Undeveloped real estate in
various parts of the city
ance tOWH. 2: ars oe ee 94,671.00
Total amount liable for as-
sessment 2.307 ee- 6. oe cs $439,782.00
According to the statement of Mr.
W. W. Farnam, in the opinion of the
University’s legal advisor there is but
$58,916.00 of taxable property, the re-
mainder of the realty belonging to the
University being exempt, as it yields
an income of less than $6,000.
A PRECEDENT.
A precedent, dealing directly with
the dormitory and gymnasium question,
is the test case made by the town of
Princeton against Princeton College in
1852. That year the assessors included
in their list the dormitories, literary
society halls, libraries, refectories and
even the dwelling-houses of the Presi-
The Court de-
cided in this case that all these items of
real estate were included under the
term “college,” and were hence exempt
from taxation. The words of the Su-
preme Court were as follows: “Tf the
term (college) be not confined to the
mere lecture or recitation room, then
it must be so construed as intended to
include everything necessary to the
proper management of the institution,
according to the plan or principle in
which it was originally founded or by
authority subsequently adopted. The
plan of the trustees was to lodge and
board as well as instruct the students.”
_ This decision of the Supreme Court
in the Princeton case will undoubtedly
be of much weight in the discussion of
the question now at issue. ;
At the New Jersey Athletic Club
carnival in Madison Square Garden in
New *Yore on Bec 18, Bernard. J:
Wefers, the Georgetown College sprint-
er, was beaten in the 4o-yard dash and
the 220-yard run by J. H. Rush of the
Chicago Athletic Club. Rush’s mar-
gins were small. :
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