State Ex Rel. v. Southern Pub. Ass'n

84 S.W.2d 580, 169 Tenn. 257, 5 Beeler 257, 100 A.L.R. 576, 1935 Tenn. LEXIS 38
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 13, 1935
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 84 S.W.2d 580 (State Ex Rel. v. Southern Pub. Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. v. Southern Pub. Ass'n, 84 S.W.2d 580, 169 Tenn. 257, 5 Beeler 257, 100 A.L.R. 576, 1935 Tenn. LEXIS 38 (Tenn. 1935).

Opinion

Ms. Justice Chambliss

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is a suit, in the nature of quo warranto, brought in the name of the state by the Attorney General for Davidson county, on relation of a number of citizens engaged in the printing and publishing trade, to enjoin the defendant corporation, chartered in 1907, under our general welfare statutes, for religious and educational purposes, from “soliciting orders for printing and doing work incidental thereto, and from doing printing or publishing for compensation for any other person, firm or corporation, or for any State or any branch or department thereof, or for any County or municipality, or any branch or department thereof.” The facts are undisputed and the cause was heard on bill and answer. It appears that, in addition to the prosecution on a large scale of its religious and missionary enterprises, and the publication and dissemination of numerous forms and types of religious literature, the defendant was doing, also, a commercial job printing and publishing business for profit, in direct competition with relators and others so engaged. It was this trading branch or feature of the defendant’s activities that was sought by the bill herein to be restrained, as beyond its charter powers.

The chancellor was of opinion that the holding of this *259 court in the recent case of State ex rel. v. Southern Junior College, 166 Tenn., 535, 64 S. W. (2d), 9, 10, was controlling, and granted a decree enjoining the defendant substantially in accordance with the prayer of the bill above quoted. Defendant has appealed and insists (1) that its charter powers authorized it to conduct a general publishing and printing business, and (2) that it may do so for profit, without restriction as to the extent thereof, or as to the persons dealt with, so long as the profits derived are wholly devoted to the main purposes of the organization, namely, religious and educational objectives. As to the scope of its charter powers, reliance is had on the special provisions incorporated in its application for its charter, duly granted, reading as follows:

“The general purpose and object for which this corporation is formed is to further by all proper and legitimate agencies and means, the dissemination of religious and moral instruction, and for the support of public worship, the building of churches and chapels, and the maintenance of all missionary undertakings; to secure and hold copyrights and plates of books, periodicals, tracts and pamphlets; to publish, print, buy, sell and circulate literature in any or all languages and countries; to purchase types, presses, paper, etc., for the purpose of printing newspapers, books, pamphlets, etc., and do all things necessary to carry on a printing and publishing business; to receive gifts and legacies and' donations from any sources whatsoever; to make gifts and appropriations from any or all of its resources from time to time to carry out the objects and purposes of the association; and to exercise all such power and authority as may be necessary to carry out the purposes and objects above *260 specified. But the purpose and essence of this corporation, being purely benevolent, charitable and philanthropic, it is hereby expressly declared that this is a corporation not for gain or individual profit, that no dividends shall ever be declared or paid to any of its members, and that none of its property, real or personal, shall ever be used or expended except in carrying into effect the legitimate ends and aims of its being. ’ ’

For its insistence that its right to do a general printing and publishing, although competitive, business for a profit is unlimited, so long as its profits are devoted to the furtherance of its main objective, to wit, “the dissemination of religious and moral instruction, and for the support of public worship, the building of churches and chapels, and the maintenance of all missionary undertakings, ’ ’ reliance is had on holdings of this court in cases dealing with the taxation of property of general welfare corporations.

What was said in State ex rel. v. Southern Junior College, supra, in response to a like reliance upon this line of cases applies equally here. It was there said:

“We are referred to M. E. Church, South, v. Hinton, 92 Tenn., 188, 21 S. W., 321, Vanderbilt University v. Cheney, 116 Tenn., 259, 94 S. W., 90, and cases following those decisions as opposed to the result herein reached. None of these cases is in point. Nothing was involved in any of them except the liability of certain charitable and educational institutions for taxation. There was no question of the charter power of any of those corporations to pursue the particular endeavor which was claimed to have secularized its efforts. In M. E. Church, South, v. Hinton, the publishing house there involved was expressly *261 empowered to conduct a printing business. In Vanderbilt University v. Cheney, the charter power of the university to own the office building- and apartment house was not challenged. So with the other cases.”

The case quoted from was similar on its facts, and as to the principle involved,-to the instant case, and we agree with the chancellor that this ease is largely controlled by that.

In considering the true scope of the powers conferred by virtue of the recitals in the charter of the special objects and purposes of the incorporation, here-inbefore set out, it must be borne in mind that stich recitals confer no powers unless “within the purview” of one or more of the eleven paragraphs now set forth in the Code, section 4146 (Shannon’s, section 2513), enumerating the different subdivisions of objects for which corporations not for profit may be organized. The ‘ ‘form of charter,” section 4147, provides that there shall be filled in “the general purposes for which the charter is sought, embracing a full, but not necessarily minute, account of the objects of the association, and embodying, verbatim, in the statement, the proper one or more of the eleven paragraphs in the previous section within the purview of which said objects come.”

While this charter does not embrance, “verbatim,” either one of the said paragraphs, it substantially follows paragraph “(1) Religion,” and must be related thereto. Whatever is recited in the charter under its special powers which is not “within the purview,” that is, the apparent scope and intent, of the objects set forth in this paragraph (1) forms no proper part of the charter. The inclusion of more or less than the incorporation statutes *262 authorize “adds nothing legally.” Anderson-Dulin-Varnell Co. v. Williams, 148 Tenn., 388, at page 395, 255 S. W., 597, 599, and cases there cited.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

People Ex Rel. Groman v. Sinai Temple
20 Cal. App. 3d 614 (California Court of Appeal, 1971)
Metropolitan Government v. Nashville Pi Beta Phi House Corp.
407 S.W.2d 179 (Court of Appeals of Tennessee, 1966)
City of Nashville v. State Board of Equalization
360 S.W.2d 458 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1962)
State Ex Rel. McElhinney v. All-Iowa Agricultural Ass'n
48 N.W.2d 281 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1951)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
84 S.W.2d 580, 169 Tenn. 257, 5 Beeler 257, 100 A.L.R. 576, 1935 Tenn. LEXIS 38, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-v-southern-pub-assn-tenn-1935.