DocketNumber: Appeal, No. 30
Citation Numbers: 51 Pa. Super. 343
Judges: Head, Henderson, Morrison, Orlady, Porter, Rice
Filed Date: 10/14/1912
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 9/9/2022
Opinion by
The plaintiff borough filed a municipal hen to recover the amount of benefits assessed by a board of viewers against the land of the defendant resulting from the grading and paving of a street on which the said land abutted. The defendant claims that the land, thus sought to be subjected to the lien, is a place “of burial not used or held for private or corporate profit,” and is therefore within the class exempted from such municipal claim under the provisions of the Act of June 4, 1901, P. L. 364, enacted in pursuance of art. IX, sec. 1, of the constitution. In determining the soundness of such claim for exemption, the statute creating an exempt class must be strictly construed against the claimant. If his right to the exemption be doubtful, the doubt must be resolved in favor of the state or the municipality in obedience to that fundamental principle of government which requires that the burdens of taxation be equally borne by all: Cooley on Taxation, 146; Academy of Fine Arts v. Philadelphia, 22 Pa. 496; Com. v. Cover, 29 Pa. Superior Ct. 409.
Certainly such conclusion cannot rest on the proposition that down to this time the revenue from the property has not exceeded in amount what it has cost to purchase and maintain it. So much seems to be conceded. But it is strenuously urged upon us that the evidence shows the property was not purchased as an investment but only and solely to be used as a place of burial. But it is to be observed that the status of this property, within or without the exempted class created by the statute, cannot be determined by the mental attitude of those who bought it. Their intention to use it only as a place of burial, if it
In the light of these considerations we feel forced to accept as sound the conclusion reached by the learned court below whose opinion, directing the entry of judgment non obstante veredicto in favor of the plaintiff, shows that he was unable to distinguish the present case in any material respect from that of Brown v. Pittsburg, 1 Mona. (Pa.) 8. The material facts of that case, as stated in the opinion of President Judge Stowe, approved by the Supreme Court, are practically identical with those exhibited by the present record. We are unable to find. any satisfactory distinction between that case and this that would enable us to escape the controlling force of that authority. For these reasons and those well stated in the opinion of the learned court below, we must hold that the defendant has not shown a case which clearly brings its property within the exempted class created by the act of 1901. The assignments of error are overruled.
Judgment affirmed.