Nebraska Conference Ass'n of Seventh Day Adventists v. Board of Equalization

138 N.W.2d 455, 179 Neb. 326, 1965 Neb. LEXIS 647
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 19, 1965
Docket35996
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 138 N.W.2d 455 (Nebraska Conference Ass'n of Seventh Day Adventists v. Board of Equalization) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nebraska Conference Ass'n of Seventh Day Adventists v. Board of Equalization, 138 N.W.2d 455, 179 Neb. 326, 1965 Neb. LEXIS 647 (Neb. 1965).

Opinion

Carter, J.

This is an appeal by the board of equalization and county assessor of Hall County from a judgment of the district court for Hall County exempting from taxation certain property owned by the Nebraska Conference Association of Seventh Day Adventists.

The Conference Association maintains a denominational grade and high school 1 mile east of Shelton, Nebraska, in Hall County. The facility is known as the Platte Valley Academy. It is principally a boarding coeducational parochial high school, although it operates a grammar school primarily for the benefit of the children of the teachers and employees connected with the operation of the school. The high school is accredited by the state and its teachers are certificated as required by the laws of Nebraska. At the time of trial there were 110 students in the high school and 13 in the grammar school. All students are lodged and boarded at the school and require constant supervision throughout the school year. For the school year of 1964-1965, the costs, charged for each student were: Tuition, $415; room and laundry, $250; board, $340; a total of $1,005.

The Conference Association is incorporated and holds title to the real and personal property operated as a school. At the time of trial the property used by the Platte Valley Academy consisted of approximately 463 acres of land on which are located school buildings, dormitories, farm buildings, residences occupied by the faculty and maintenance service personnel, a dairy herd of 100 milch cows, and machinery for farming the land. *328 For convenience, the land was described on exhibit 2 as six tracts numbered I to VI. The residences were numbered 1 to 11. The question of exemption from taxation involves the 9 3-acre tract of land in Tract VI, and the 11 residences.

The 93 acres of land designated as Tract VI were purchased in 1963, after the decision of this, court in Nebraska Conf. Assn. Seventh Day Adventists v. County of Hall, 166 Neb. 588, 90 N. W. 2d 50, in which we held that Tracts I to V, inclusive, were exempt from taxation as being used for educational purposes. The evidence shows that, at the time of the former case, the Conference Association was renting 60 acres of land which were being used in connection with the farming operations of the Platte Valley Academy. Subsequently the lease was lost and the Conference Association purchased the 93-acre Tract VI to replace the leased 60 acres. It is the contention of the Conference Association that Tract VI was needed to carry on its agricultural program in the Platte Valley Academy. The board of equalization contends that this tract is not needed to carry on the agricultural program of the school, and is used only to afford additional income and work opportunity for students, and that it is therefore taxable. This constitutes the issue before the court.

The evidence shows that most of the students attending the school are not financially able to pay the required tuition and expenses in cash. It is the policy of the school to afford farm work to the male students attending the school and to credit such work at an hourly rate on their tuition and expenses. The principal of the school testified that if all tuition and expenses were paid in cash, the school would be self-sustaining, but that this is impossible. The evidence shows that work is afforded male students on the farm lands and dairy and for female students in the food service department and in certain room and custodial service. No academic credit is given for this work. During the current year there *329 were some 14 boys taking the agriculture course. Farm mechanics is not taught and industrial arts is alternated with the course in agriculture. While the record shows that some of the boys perform some labor on the 93 acres for which they are given credit on their tuition and expenses, there is no evidence that the land was needed to carry out the school’s educational program. In fact, the evidence is to the contrary. The school principal testified that as far as academic use is concerned, the acquisition of the 93 acres was not essential to the operation of the academy. The evidence clearly indicates that the purchase of Tract VI was for the purpose of increasing the income for the Platte Valley Academy and was not for the primary purpose of providing educational facilities for the school.

This court has held that it is the exclusive use of property which determines its exempt character. It is the use of property as distinguished from the use of the income from the property that determines whether or not it is exempt from taxation. Doane College v. County of Saline, 173 Neb. 8, 112 N. W. 2d 248; Lincoln Woman’s Club v. City of Lincoln, 178 Neb. 357, 133 N. W. 2d 455; Nebraska Conf. Assn. Seventh Day Adventists v. County of Hall, supra.

The use of land to increase the income to a school, or for the sole purpose of providing compensable work for students, is an incidental use of property that does not bring it within the terms of the Constitution and statutes providing for exemption from taxation as property owned and used exclusively for educational, religious, charitable, or cemetery purposes, even though such property is not used for private financial gain or profit.

As early as Academy of the Sacred Heart v. Irey, 51 Neb. 755, 71 N. W. 752, this court said: “The test applied by this court in First Christian Church of Beatrice v. City of Beatrice, 39 Neb., 432, was whether the property is used directly, immediately, and exclu *330 sively for one of the purposes enumerated in the statute creating the exemptions, in which case it was ruled that lots owned by a religious society, but not used for religious purposes, and entirely separate and distinct from that on which its church edifice is situated, are not exempt from taxation, notwithstanding it was the intention of the society in the future to build a church edifice on said property not so occupied. The doctrine of that case is not only sound, but it is supported by the decisions of the courts of last resort of many of the sister states. It is the exclusive use of the property which determines its exempt character. If it is devoted exclusively to educational purposes, it is not liable to taxation, unless such use is not direct, but remote. If property is used only partially for the purposes of education, exemption from the burdens of taxation cannot be claimed.”

This court has also held that if property is partly exempt and partly nonexempt, the value of the nonexempt portion is subject to taxation. Masonic Temple Craft v. Board of Equalization, 129 Neb. 293, 261 N. W. 569, on rehearing, 129 Neb. 827, 263 N. W. 150. The mere fact, therefore, that the 93 acres in Tract VI are being used as a part of the farm operations of the school in which a part of said lands are exempt, does not prevent the taxation of the lands found not to be used for an exempt purpose.

We conclude that Tract VI is not used exclusively for educational purposes, and that its use to round out the farming operations and to' provide work for students is too remote to bring it within the purview of the constitutional provision and statute authorizing tax exemption when used exclusively for educational purposes.

The issue resolves itself into1 a question of fact.

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Bluebook (online)
138 N.W.2d 455, 179 Neb. 326, 1965 Neb. LEXIS 647, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nebraska-conference-assn-of-seventh-day-adventists-v-board-of-neb-1965.