Morris v. Lone Star Chapter No. 6

Citations

• 68 Tex. 698
• 5 S.W. 519
• 1887 Tex. LEXIS 758

Syllabus

<p>Taxation—Constitution Construed — Institutions for Charity.— Construing the following portion of section 2 of article 8 of the State Constitution, “But the Legislature may by general laws exempt from taxation public property used for public purposes, actual places of religious worship, places of burial not held for private or corporate profit, all buildings used exclusively and owned by persons for school purposes (and the necessary furniture of all such schools), and institutions of purely public charity, and all laws exempting property from taxation other than the property above mentioned shall be void,” held:</p> <p>(1) The most reasonable interpretation to be given to that subdivision of the section which includes the word “institutions,” is that it means “all buildings used exclusively and owned by institutions of purely public charity.”</p> <p>(2) When the construction of a law is doubtful, which, it is claimed, exempts one from some liability to the State, the doubt will be resolved in favor of the State, and against the exemption.</p> <p>(3) A Masonic temple, the third story of which is used for Masonic lodges to meet in, and the two lower stories of which are rented by the Masonic order and the proceeds appropriated to purposes of charity, is not an institution exempt from the burthen of taxation, within the meaning of the Constitution.</p> <p>(4) It is only the property of a charitable institution which is used directly and exclusively by it, which is exmept from taxation, and the leasing of a part of it subjects the whole to taxation.</p>