Court Opinion

ID: 9519584
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 01:19:17.620603+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:44:30.969585
License: Public Domain

TEIGEN, Chief Justice
(concurring specially).
I concur in the result. In my opinion, the property in question is exempt from taxation under subsection 7 of Section 57--02-08, N.D.C.C. It is not exempt under subsection 9 thereof.
The original text of Section 176 of the Constitution, and the 1914 amendment thereto, imposed a mandate upon the legislature to, by general law, exempt from taxation property used “exclusively for religious purposes.” Legislation was enacted in 1901 (Chapter 160, Session Laws of 1901). This statute exempts property used exclusively for religious purposes and provides that a dwelling, and the land upon which it is located, used for the residence of the clergy, is “deemed to be property used exclusively for religious” purposes. To qualify such property for a tax exemption, the statute requires that both the dwelling, its land, and the building in which the services are conducted, and its land, be owned by the same religious corporation, or organization, and that the clergy, who occupies the dwelling, is in charge of “such services.”
In 1918, Section 176 of the Constitution was again amended. It became self-executing and does not require legislation to exempt property used exclusively for religious purposes. In 1923 the legislature' enacted Chapter 308, which is now codified as subsection 7 of Section 57-02-08, N.D.C.C. This statute does not require ownership by the religious corporation of the church edifice or the land on which it stands. It exempts a dwelling and its lots, owned by a religious organization, which is intended and ordinarily used for the residence of the clergy “in charge of the services of the church.” This act does not attempt to classify the dwelling or lots as being used “exclusively for religious purposes” to bring it within the terms of the constitutional provision. Subsection 7 is, therefore, purely a statutory exemption.
The Lutheran Campus Council does not own the land or the building in which their church services are conducted, but such ownership is not necessary under subsection 7. The Lutheran Campus Council apparently does hold church services in a church rented for that purpose and the minister, occupying the dwelling in question, is in charge of the services conducted therein by the Lutheran Campus Council. Therefore, in my opinion, it is exempt from taxation under subsection 7.
KNUDSON, J., concurs.