Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad v. Thomas
Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad v. Thomas
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court. '
Statutes exempting persons or property from taxation, being in derogation of the soverign authority add of common right, are, according to all the authorities, strictly construed. As taxation is the rule and exemption the exception, the intention to create an exemption must be expressed in clear and unambiguous terms; and it cannot be taken to have been intended, when the language of the statute on which it depends' is doubtful or uncertain. Legislation, which relieves any species of property from its due proportion of the burdens of government, must be so clear that there can be neither reasonable doubt nor controversy in regard to its meaning. Cooley, on Taxation, 2d Ed., 204; Bailey v. Magwire, 22 Wall., 215; Vicksburg, Shreveport & Pacific Railroad Co. v. Dennis, 116 U. S., 665; Frantz v. Dobson, 64 Miss., 631.
In the light of these principles, we are unable to find any thing in the charter of appellant to warrant the exemption claimed in this case. It is quite plain to us, that the exemption created by Section 8- of appellants’ charter, Acts of 1882, page 141, was intended to commence from and after the completion of a railroad to the Mississippi river, and was to continue thereafter for twenty years, if the road was completed to the river in five years from the date of the approval of the act, but liable to be diminished by whatever time beyond five years was consumed in the completion of the road to the riVer.
' At the time appellants’ charter was enacted, as now, railroads in process of construction and not finished and used for profit, were not taxable under the general laws of the State. Code, Sec. 608; and this may account for the charter providing exemption from taxation after the completion of the road, and none during the period of its construction.
Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad Company v. S. B. Thomas, Tax Collectors
- Cited By
- 3 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Taxation. Exemption therefrom. Statute, how construed. A statute purporting to exempt persons or property from taxation must be strictly construed; and to create such, exemption it, must express the legislative intent therefor in terms so clear and unambiguous as to preclude reasonable doubt or controversy in respect thereto. :2. Same. Statute providing for exemption therefrom construed. Charter of Y. & M. V. It. E. Co. The charter of incorporation of the Y. & M. V. R. R. Co., approved February 18,1882, declared, in the eighth section thereof, “ That in order to encourage the investment of capital in the works which said company is hereby authorized to construct and maintain, and to make certain, in advance of such investment, and as an inducement and consideration therefor, the taxes and burdens which this State will or will not impose thereon, it is hereby declared that said company, its stock, its railroads and appurtenances, and all its property in this State, necessary or incident to the full exercise of all the powers herein'granted — not to include compresses and oil mills — shall be exempt from taxation for a térm of twenty-years from the completion of said railroad to the Mississippi river, not to extend beyond twenty-five years from the date of this act; and when the period of exemption herein prescribed shall have expired, the property of said railway company shall be taxed at the same rate as other property in this State.” Held, that the exemption created by the statute quoted was intended to commence from and after the completion of the contemplated railroad to the Mississippi river, and to continue thereafter for twenty years, if the road should be thus completed in five years from the approval of the statute, but to be liable to diminution by whatever time beyond five years should be consumed in the construction of the road to the river.