Case Name: Morning Star Lodge, No. 26, I. O. O. F., v. S. J. Hayslip, Treasurer, etc.
Court: Supreme Court of Ohio
Jurisdiction: Ohio
Decision Date: 1872-12
Citations: 23 Ohio St. 144
Docket Number: 
Parties: Morning Star Lodge, No. 26, I. O. O. F., v. S. J. Hayslip, Treasurer, etc.
Judges: 
Reporter: Ohio State Reports, New Service
Volume: 23
Pages: 144–146

Head Matter:
Morning Star Lodge, No. 26, I. O. O. F., v. S. J. Hayslip, Treasurer, etc.
Motion for leave to file a petition in error to reverse the-judgment of the District. Court of Medina county.
Morning Star Lodge, No. 26, of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, situate in the village of Medina, owned and possessed $2,774, of which $1,712 constituted a lodge fund, and $1,062 a widows and orphans’ fund. The former fund w«,s held for the purpose of relieving sick and needy members of the order, and the latter to provide for the widows and orphans of deceased members. The assessor returned this $2,77 4 for taxation, and taxes having been assessed thereon, and the county treasurer being about to proceed to collect the same after they had become due, the lodge, claiming that said fund was exempt from taxation, began an action in Medina Common Pleas to enjoin him from so doing. The treasurer answered, denying that said moneys were held for' the purpose of purely public charity. The Common Pleas-dismissed the petition, and, after appeal, the District Court did the like. A motion for a new trial having been made- and overruled, a bill of exceptions, presenting all the evidence, was taken, and the lodge now asks leave to file a petition in error to reverse the judgment of the District Court.
J. B. Young and H. J. Walker, for the motion:
This action is one of great importance and of interest to-every tax-payer in Ohio.
It directly interests the several “ Masonic ” institutions, the “Odd Fellows’” lodges and encampments, the “Knights of Pythias,” the “ Improved Order of Red Men,” the “ Engineers’ Protective Association,” the “ Good Fellows,” the- “ Good Templars,” the “ Sons of Temperance,” the “ Grand? Army of the Republic,” and all institutions of a similar-character in the state.
The membership of these institutions is probably not less-than 800,000 in this state, and their moneys probably amount to $2,000,000.
AH funds of this kind, with one or two exceptions, have-never been taxed in this state.
The case depends upon the construction of section 2, article 12, of the constitution of the state, and subdivision 6 of section 1 of the act on page 761, S. & S. Statutes; also-the constitution and by-laws of the plaintiff.
The funds of the plaintiff are not raised with a “view to-profit,” but are used “solely to sustain the institution.”' Our hospitals and asylums, other than the state institutions,, are governed to a great extent by rules and regulations, similar to those of the lodge.
Blake, Woodward & Lewis, contra.
No brief on file.

Opinion:
By the Court.
A charitable or benevolent association-which extends relief only to its own sick and needy mem bers, and to the widows and orphans of its deceased members, is not "an institution of purely public charity;" and its moneys held and invested for the aforesaid purposes are not exempt from taxation.
Motion overruled.