People ex rel. Huck v. Western Seaman's Friend Society

Citations

• 87 Ill. 246

Syllabus

<p>1. Taxation—against whom, assessed. Where the legal title to property appears in one who, in fact, is but a trustee for another, but the trust is not declared, and there is nothing to indicate it to the revenue officers, it is rightfully assessed in the trustee’s name, under the law. If the property is trust property, and subject to taxation, the trustee should, no doubt, list it in the name of the equitable owner.</p> <p>2. Same — exemption—public charity. The institutions of purely public charity whose property is exempted from taxation must be corporations, and it may be well doubted whether such exemption was designed to embrace more than institutions of public charity such as are founded and maintained by the State, as contradistinguished from those founded by private enterprise.</p> <p>3. The clause of the second section of the Revenue act of 1872, exempting the property of institutions of public charity, has exclusive reference to institutions or corporations created by the laws of this State, and does not embrace foreign corporations that may locate branches in this State.</p> <p>4. Same—exemptions construed strictly. Under the constitutional provision requiring all taxes to be imposed equally upon the property of persons and corporations, exemptions from such burdens are to be construed strictly, and not extended, by judicial construction, to embrace other property than is plainly expressed in the law.</p>