The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-01-06
NEW HAVEN MORNING JOURNAL AND COURIER,

thereof, be and remain exempt from tax
alton. Provided, however, that the said
corporation shall never hold in
this state real estate free from tax
alton affordng an annual income of
more than six thousand dollars and pro-
vided also that the private property of
the officers of the institution shall not
be exempt from taxation and that the
said corporation shall on or before the
first day of September A. D., 1884, give
its assent to this act, and transmit the
evidence thereof to the Secretary of the
State to be by him recorded" (Vol. 2,
Priv. Laws, p.)
The same language in respect to taxa
ton is repeated in Section 1922, which
was passed in 1882 Especial Laws, Chap.
XcViiD to exclude the charters OF col
legeS, which We're claimed to be in the
nature of contracts, from the operation
of acts affecting taxation. Some of the
considerations suggested in discussing
the clause of $500 apply to the construc-
tion OF this charter In granting such
a charter the state constitutes the cor
poration, it's agent, for a purely pubic
purpose, and entrusts it with author
Ivy WHICH Nelil OILY Nc bCllNSt AAb+it
the state, to confer degrees in scholar
ship and learning upon those found
worthy. The legislative intent is ndi-
Gated in the charter of Wesleyan col
lege, which provides that the act shall
be literally construed for every b2ne-
fetal purpose hereby intended" (Vol.
5, Special Laws, 472.) The state has
been very careful to treat it's colleges
precisely alike in the matter of taxa
tion, and it is hardly possible that one
rule of construction was intended for
Wesleyan and another for Yale and
Trinity. But it is unnec5 ssary, in treat
ing the question now before US, to in
woke any special rule of construction.
The charter in the broadcast terms ex-
enlpta all the property of the college
from taxation, This possibly may cover
the buildings occupied as colleg s which
are non-taXable by virtue Of our settled
public policy as declared in section
$3.50; but its main purpose was to eX-
empt all estate and funds invested and
held lawfully, i. e.. for the use of the
col!ese," including botk principal and
income The only limitation on this
absolute exemption is contained IN the
provfso; provided, however, that said
corporation shall never hold in this
state, real estate, free from taxation,
affarding an annual income of more
than six thousand dollars" The con-
tention of the defendant is that when
ever the income from real estate ex-
ceeds the sum of six thousand dollars
not only the real estate producing such
excess of income, but alsosall the unpro-
ductive real estate the college may
hold, becomes at once liable to taxa
ton. We think this requires US to in
teIpolate into the charter a limitation
it does not contain. BY the original
charter ''all the lands and ratab,e estate
belonging to the college, not exceeding
the yearly value of five hundred pounds
sterling" as well as the estates of the
president and professors We're freed
from rates, etc. 1t is not easy to de-
termine the precise meaning Of this
language, without a detailed examina-
ton of the conditions of 1745 in refer
ence to which it wasfused, This is I'M
necessary. 1t is certain that by this
provision it was intended to exempt all
the property the college was likely to
own for an indefinite period and that
the provision served that purpose fof,
nigh hundred years The precise re-
striction the legislature of 1745 had in
mind is now immaterial. 1t was ADAM
doned in 1884; Il new provision in re-
spect to taxation,- different in form
and substance, was then adopted in
reference to a new future. This new
provision was intended to be broader
than the old, as shown not only by the