Mayor of Baltimore v. Minister & Trustees of the Starr Methodist Protestant Church

Rogers, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an appeal from a decree passed by the Circuit Court No. 2, of Baltimore City, enjoining Henry Williams, City Collector, from selling for the purpose of State and municipal ²⁸² taxes certain wharf property in Baltimore City, the income, rents and profits of which belong to the appellee, and further enjoining the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore and the Appeal Tax Court from assessing said wharf property for the purposes of municipal taxation. The appellee is an incorporated religious body and a branch of “The Trustees of the Maryland Annual Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church,” incorporated by the Acts of the General Assembly of Maryland of 1890, ch. 181. A .certain Wesley Starr, late of Baltimore City, deceased, by his last will and testament gave and devised “unto ‘The Minister and Trustees of the Starr Methodist Protestant Church’ in Baltimore City, as a kind of endowment, the rents, profits and yearly income of the wharf opposite the lot on Light street, in said city, purchased from J. H. B. Latrobe, trustee and others, January 1st, 1842, and at the death or marriage of my daughter-in-law, Mrs. Laura Starr, whichever shall first occur, the yearly rent of two hundred and forty dollars reserved in the said lease from me to them of May last, to be held and enjoyed by said church for and during all time as may elapse, before the corporate authorities, official members or membership’ of said church shall admit any musical instrumentas distinguished from the human voice, into the Sabbath school singing, choir or choir rehearsals or singing schools of said church, held either on the church premises or elsewhere, or shall attempt — I trust they never will — to raise money by the holding — now somewhat fashionable, either in the church or Sabbath school room or elsewhere, of any fair, festival or concert of instrumental music, or by the delivery of any irreligious or political lecture or the still more demoralizing and sinful mode, should the churches ever so far degenerate as to adopt it, of balls, parties, lotteries, theatrical performances, raffles or the voting for distinguished Individuals; when, and upon the happening of any of these contingencies, the said wharf property and ground rents shall fall into the residuum of my estate and be subject to the disposal hereinafter made thereof; and I give and release unto said church all ground ²⁸³ rent in arrear under my lease to them and the accruing rent computed to the day of my decease.” The church has collected the rents from said wharf property since Mr. Starr’s death, and paid the taxes on said property until the year 1904, when the Legislature, by ch. 263 of the Acts of 1904, passed an Act, exempting said wharf property from taxation, as follows: An Act to exempt from taxation certain wharf property on Light street, in the city of Baltimore, belonging to the Minister and Trustees of the Starr Methodist Protestant Church, in Baltimore City.

Whereas, Wesley Starr, late of Baltimore City, deceased, by his last will and testament, dated the twentieth day of February, in the year 1866, devised and bequeathed unto the Minister and Trustees of Starr Methodist Protestant Church in Baltimore City, the rents, profits and yearly income of certain wharf property on Light street, in Baltimore City, hereinafter referred to; and Whereas, the restrictions and conditions thrown around said devise and bequest are such as that the said Minister and Trustees of Starr Methodist Protestant Church are deprived of the full enjoyment thereof, without seriously affecting their proper mode of worship; and Whereas, it will be a great relief and benefit to said religious body to exempt said wharf property from taxation. Secion 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of MaryJ land, that the wharf property on Light street, in the City of Baltimore, opposite the lot on said Light street, conveyed to Wesley Starr by John H. B. Latrobe and others, trustees, by deed of January 1st, 1842, and recorded among the Land Records of Baltimore City, in Liber T. K. No. 315, page 316, and by said Wesley Starr devised and bequeathed unto the Minister and Trustees of Starr Methodist Protestant Church, of the city of Baltimore, said wharf property fronting thirty-one feet and one inch on Light street, beginning atthe intersection of Pratt and Light streets, shall be, and the same is hereby forever exempted from municipal taxation so long as the said property, or the income therefrom, shall be owned and enjoyed by the said Minister and Trustees of Starr Methodist Protestant Church, and that all taxes in arrear upon said property are hereby released and remitted. Section 2.

And be it enacted, that this Act shall take effect from the date of its passage. Approved April 12, 1904. ²⁸⁴ Notwithstanding the passage of the Act of 1904 exempting said wharf property from taxation, the Appeal Tax Court of Baltimore City retained the property on its assessment books and the city collector on Nov. 19th, 1906, advertised said property for sale for non-payment of.taxes. The Minister and Trustees of Starr Methodist Protestant Church filed its bill of complaint, in the Circuit Court No. 2 of Baltimore City, setting forth the provisions of chapter 263 of the Acts of 1904 and prayed that the appellant, Henry Williams, City Collector, be enjoined from selling the aforesaid wharf property and that the Judges of the Appeal Tax Court be required to strike from the tax books of the City of Baltimore, the said property in so far as the same is assessed to the appellee. The Court ordered the preliminary injunction to be issued as prayed, with leave to appellants to move for its dissolution.

After motion to dismiss and hearing, the preliminary injunction was made permanent, by final order of the Court, and from that order this appeal is taken. It is apparent that the constitutionality vel non of the Act of 1904, chapter 263, lies at the root of this contention, and as the determination of that question will settle the entire matter, we will confine this discussion to that point, because if null and void, it confers no exemption upon the property in question from assessment and taxation for municipal purposes. In support of the appellant’s position reference is made to the Declaration of Rights, article 15, which provides that “every person in the State, or person holding property therein, ought to contribute his proportion of public taxes for the support of the Government, according to his actual worth in real or personal property; yet fines, duties or taxes may properly and justly be imposed, or laid, with a political view for the good government and benefit of the community.” This provision has, with a slight but not material change of phraseology, been a part of the organic law of Maryland for considerably more than a century. Its predominant object is to provide by a fixed enactment equality in taxation, and to prevent, as far as “possible, the burden of supporting the goverment from fall ²⁸⁵ ing upon some individuals to the exclusion or exemption of others.

It prohibits unjust discriminations, and whilst it remains in force the land owner, be his possessions large or small, will have an absolute and complete guarantee that public taxes cannot be imposed upon him while others who are equally responsible in the law may have themselves relieved of this burden by the partiality of legislative enactment, without sub-serving any public policy. Its theory is that the distribution of the burden over every class of property alike, will lessen the proportion of each individuals contribution, whereby oppressive exactions from the owners of any particular class of property will be impossible. This has been the uniform and consistent principle always followed in Maryland; eminently just in itself as a sound and long accepted axiom of political economy, it has been incorporated in her organic law since November 3rd, 1776; it has been upheld by her Courts and steadily and tenaciously adhered to by her conservative people. By the Act of 1904 not only under the construction placed upon it by the appellee but palpably by reason of its exemption attempts to overthrow this salutary principle and to disregard Art. 15 of the Declaration of Rights, and to substitute a novel and experimental scheme, which if suffered to obtain a foothold will inevitably lead to ruinous consequences.

If the Legislature may lawfully do this in this particular instance, why not in another, and another, until there would be an almost indefinite number of exemptions, and we think such Acts should be stricken down as null, and inoperative, repugnant to the organic law, and prolific of obvious abuses. We are not to be understood as denying to the Legislature the power, when State policy and considerations beneficial to the public justify it, to exempt, within reasonable limits, some species of property from taxation. A long continued practice, nearly contemporaneous