Pittsburg v. Third Presbyterian Church of Pittsburg

Citations

• 20 Pa. Super. 362
• 1902 Pa. Super. LEXIS 239

Syllabus

<p>Taxation — Church property — Exemption—Trial by jury — Appeal from assessment — Equity—Practice, C. P.</p> <p>Where a municipality assesses for taxes a large lot owned by a church, on a small part of which a chapel has been built, and the church does not raise its claim for exemption either by an appeal from the assessment, or by bill in equity, it cannot complain if the court on a scire facias sur municipal lien for taxes submits to the jury the question as to what portion, if any, of the vacant land should, as a malLer of fact, be properly regarded as necessary to the occupancy or enjoyment of the chapel erected on the land.</p> <p>It seems that a church is not entitled to hold exempt from taxation the whole of a large piece of vacant ground, not at the time used as an actual place of religious worship, and not all necessary for the enjoyment and occupancy of a chapel erected, but held for the avowed purpose of erecting a new church which is not even in course of erection.</p>