The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-01-20
1T is AND 1T ISN'T
Kansas Lawyer, Legal Publica-
ton Makes Awful BIunder.
Prints a Decision of the Supreme
Court Too Soon.
NOT HANDED DOWN.
BIunder Due to One of the Court
StenOgraphers.
Cases Are the Two Famous
Lodge Tax Decisions.

The joke is on the Kansas supreme
court. This is such an unusual thing
in respect to such an august and all
powerful body that the plain and
ordinary citizen is inclined to make
the most of it. It may not occur again
between now and the millennium. The
Kansas Lawyer, a legal publication
issued by the law students of the Kan
sas university, this week contains
the syllabi of the court in the Odd
Fellow and Masonic home tax cases.
Now the court did not hand down its
decision in these cases the first Sat
urday in this month along with the
other decisions. The decision, it APP
pears had been made and written, but
the court evidently had not made up
its mind fully on the case and wanted
another month to consider the decis-
ions. A decision is not law until 1t is
handed down in due form.
In these cases, however, the K. U.
legal magazine, had, in some
mysterious fashion gotten hold of the
Masonic and Odd Fellow decisions
along with the other decisions hand
ed down the first Saturday in this
month, and innocently published
them, thinking that they had been
handed down with the others and
were the law of the state. This is an
awful case of lese majestic. These I'M
fiedged law students at K. U. have TAX
en- it upon themselves to make a de-
cision for the supreme court. It is
true that the court had come to some
such understanding in the matter,
but the court had not made up its
mind in a final way. So these lawyer
editors of this amateur magazine
forced the hand of the court and
showed the decision on through just
as they would cross goal line with
football but the touchdown will not
be allowed.
According to the Kansas Magazine,
for the present the official organ of
the supreme court, the court has af-
firmed the decision of the Wyandotte
court in the Odd Fellows case, hold
ing that the Odd Fellows property
upon which rents are collected is not
exempt from taxation under the law.
The Odd Fellows had pleaded ex-
emption from taxation under the
clause of the law exempting the prop
erty of charitable organizations. The
syllabus of the court as published in
the Kansas Magazine in this case, is
as follows:
e Blythe pFeuisions- of =subhead~ first
section 2, chapter 40S, laws of 1907,
providing for the exemption from tax
alton of real property belonging to q
benevolent or charitable corporation
and occupied in part by it and in part
rented for legitimate purposes, it is q
requisite to the exemption that the net
rents of the leased portion be applied
exclusively TO benevolent and charit
able purposes.
"Under section 1. article II, of the
constitution, to entitle property used
for a benevolent and charitable pur-
poses to exemption from taxation, it is
requisite that the property be exclu-
sively so used"
In the case brought by the Masons,
appealing from the decision of the
Sedgwick district court. the supreme
court appears to have held that the
Masonic property in this case, the
Masonic home at Wichita, is exempt
from taxation from the fact that it
is used exclusively for benevolent pur-
poses, and The decision of the lower
court holding that the Masonic prop
erty was not so exempt, is reversed.
The syllabus. as printed by the X. U.
legal magazine, is as follows
'eThe exemption from taxation de-
clared by section 1, article II, of our
state constitution. is a property ex-
emption based solely upon the exclu-
sive use made of the property. 1t is
not an exemption to the ownership,
and the character of the owner as to