In 1833, the Legislature of Pennsylvania enacted that
"the real property, including ground rents, now belonging and
payable to Christ Church Hospital, in the City of Philadelphia, so
long as the same shall continue to belong to the said hospital,
shall be and remain free from taxes."
In 1851, they enacted that all property, real or personal,
belonging to any association or incorporated company which is now
by law exempt from taxation, other than that which is in the actual
use and occupation of such association or incorporated company, and
from which an income or revenue is derived by the owners thereof,
shall hereafter be subject to taxation in the same manner and for
the same purposes as other property is now by law taxable, and so
much of any law as is hereby altered and supplied be and the same
is hereby repealed.
This last law was not in violation of the Constitution of the
United States. It is in the nature of such a privilege as the act
of 1833 confers, that it exists
bene placitum, and may be
revoked at the pleasure of the sovereign.
Page 65 U. S. 301
The facts of the case are stated in the opinion of the court,
and also the decision of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, which
was alleged to be in conflict with the Constitution of the United
States.
MR. JUSTICE CAMPBELL delivered the opinion of the Court.
This cause comes before this Court upon a writ of error to the
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, under the 25th section of the Act of
Congress of the 24th September, 1789. In the year 1833 the
Legislature of Pennsylvania passed an act which recited
"That Christ Church Hospital, in the City of Philadelphia, had
for many years afforded an asylum to numerous poor and distressed
widows, who would probably else have become a public charge; and it
being represented that in consequence of the decay of the buildings
of the hospital estate, and the increasing burden of taxes, its
means are curtailed, and its usefulness limited,"
they enacted,
"that the real property, including ground rents, now belonging
and payable to Christ Church Hospital, in the City of Philadelphia,
so long as the same shall continue to belong to the said hospital,
shall be and remain free from taxes."
In the year 1851, the same authority enacted
"that all property, real and personal, belonging to any
association or incorporated
Page 65 U. S. 302
company which is now by law exempt from taxation, other than
that which is in the actual use and occupation of such association
or incorporated company, and from which an income or revenue is
derived by the owners thereof, shall hereafter be subject to
taxation in the same manner and for the same purposes as other
property is now by law taxable, and so much of any law as is hereby
altered and supplied be and the same is hereby repealed."
It was decided in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, that the
exemption conferred upon these plaintiffs by the act of 1833 was
partially repealed by the act of 1851, and that an assessment of a
portion of their real property under the act of 1851 was not
repugnant to the Constitution of the United States, as tending to
impair a legislative contract they alleged to be contained in the
act of Assembly of 1833 aforesaid.
The plaintiffs claim that the exemption conceded by the act of
1833 is perpetual, and that the act itself is in effect a contract.
This concession of the legislature was spontaneous, and no service
or duty, or other remunerative condition, was imposed on the
corporation. It belongs to the class of laws denominated privilegia
favorabilia. It attached only to such real property as belonged to
the corporation, and while it remained as its property; but it is
not a necessary implication from these facts that the concession is
perpetual, or was designed to continue during the corporate
existence.
Such an interpretation is not to be favored, as the power of
taxation is necessary to the existence of the state, and must be
exerted according to the varying conditions of the Commonwealth.
The act of 1833 belongs to a class of statutes in which the
narrowest meaning is to be taken which will fairly carry out the
intent of the legislature. All laws, all political institutions,
are dispositions for the future, and their professed object is to
afford a steady and permanent security to the interests of society.
Bentham says,
"that all laws may be said to be framed with a view to
perpetuity; but perpetual is not synonymous to irrevocable; and the
principle on which all laws ought to be, and the greater part of
them have been established, is that of defeasible perpetuity -- a
perpetuity defeasible
Page 65 U. S. 303
by an alteration of the circumstances and reasons on which the
law is founded."
The inducements that moved the legislature to concede the favor
contained in the act of 1833 are special, and were probably
temporary in their operation. The usefulness of the corporation had
been curtailed in consequence of the decay of their buildings and
the burden of taxes.
It may be supposed that in eighteen years the buildings would be
renovated, and that the corporation would be able afterwards to
sustain some share of the taxation of the state. The act of 1851
embodies the sense of the legislature to this effect.
It is in the nature of such a privilege as the act of 1833
confers, that it exists
bene placitum, and may be revoked
at the pleasure of the sovereign.
Such was the conclusion of the courts in
Commonwealth v.
Bird, 12 Mass. 442;
Dale v. Governor, 3 Stew. 387;
Alexander v. Willington, 2 Russ. & M. 35; 12 Harris
232; Lindley's Jurisp., sec. 42.
It is the opinion of the Court that there is no error in the
judgment of the supreme court, within the scope of the writ to that
court, and its judgment is
Affirmed.