was in sole occupation of the land a tax upon it was assessed to the widow. Held, that the widow was not the person "in possession within the Pub. Stats., ch. 11, § 13; and that the assessment was invalid. Lynde v. Brown, 143 Mass. 337.

Taxes on real estate must be assessed, under the Pub. Stats., ch. 11, § 13, to the living owners of real estate; and an assessment to a person deceased, who owned such real estate at his death, is illegal and void. Sawyer v. Mackie, 149 Mass. 269.

A parsonage, erected for a religious society on its land, and near its church edifice, for the use of its ministers as a dwelling-house exclusively, free of rent, is not, under the Pub. Stats., ch. 11, § 5, cl. 3, 7, exempt from taxation. Third Congregational Society of Springfield v. Springfield, 147 Mass. 396.

A railroad company, as required by the Stat. of 1884, ch. 157, § 1, discontinued its location over certain land within the limits of its road, used by it for station purposes, and, as authorized by § 2, took another parcel of land, a narrow strip of which was within its original location, but had been sold by it, outside the limits of its road "for station purposes, and for tracks and yard room, to be used in connection therewith." Held, that the whole of the parcel was taken for station purposes, and under the Pub. Stats., ch. 112, § 92, and the Stat. of 1884, ch. 157, § 5, was subject to taxation. Nor. & Wor. R.R. Co. v. Co. Com'rs, 151 Mass. 69.

If a husband and wife with their children live together on the wife's real estate, the presumption is that the husband is in possession as head of the family and as her licensee; and the taxes thereon are properly assessed to him under the Pub. Stats., ch. 11, § 13, which provide for the assessment of taxes to the owner or person in possession of real estate. C. Allen & Knowlton, J. J., dissenting. Southworth v Edmands, 152 Mass 203.

If a testator's real estate has duly vested in his devisees, who are not his heirs, by the probate and allowance of his will, taxes thereon are not lawfully assessable to the heirs of the testator under the Pub. Stats., ch. 11, § 18, which provide for such assessment to the heirs or devisees of a deceased person, until notice is given of the division of the estate and of their several names; and sales thereafter of such real estate for the non-payment of taxes assessed to such heirs are invalid. Tobin v. Gillespie, 152 Mass. 219.

The property of a county is exempt from taxation only when actually appropriated to public uses.

Real estate purchased by a county for enlarging a jail and jail grounds is taxable, while let for private purposes and a source of income to the county, by the city within which it is situated. Inhabitants of Essex Co. v. Salem, 153 Mass. 141.

If a corporation organized "for the purpose of diffusing knowledge and promoting intellectual improvement" in a certain city, occupies a hall in a building owned by it for a few evenings only each winter for a course of lectures on literary and scientific subjects, and during the rest of the year lets the hall for various purposes, the estate is not exempt from taxation under the Pub. Stats., ch. 11, § 5, cl. 3, although the income derived from letting the hall is devoted exclusively to making provision for such courses of lectures. Salem Lyceum v. Salem, 154 Mass. 15.

See EXEMPTION FROM TAXATION; CORPORATIONS; RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES; TRUST PROPERTY. Wesleyan Acad

emy v. Wilbraham, 99 Mass. 599. Mass. Gen. Hospital v. Somerville, 101 Mass. 319. Jennings v. Collins, 99 Mass. 29.

RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.

Pub. Stats., ch. 11, § 5, cl. 7; § 22; ch. 38; § 28. See Wesleyan Academy v. Wilbraham, 99 Mass. 599 (1868).

See REAL ESTATE.

RESERVOIRS.

SCHOOL DISTRICT.

The school district system in this Commonwealth was abolished by Acts of 1882, ch. 219.

See Pub. Stats., ch. 45, for provisions as to taking possession of district property, its appraisal and the assessment of taxes therefor.

SEE DISTRICT TAXES.

SHIPS OR VESSELS.

Partnerships.

Pub. Stats., ch. 11, § 25.

A tax was assessed by a city on May 1, to five persons jointly as owners or trustees of a ship. The legal title to the ship was on that day in these persons in trust to complete the ship and sell her for the benefit of themselves and others having claims against her. All the trustees, on that day, did business in the city, but were not partners, and only three of them resided there. The vessel was at a wharf in the city, at which the trustees had hired a berth, with the right to pass over the wharf to the ship and to use the part of the wharf near the ship for storage. Held, that, although the three resident trustees were liable to taxation for their interest in the vessel, they could not under the Gen. Stats., ch. 11, § 12, be jointly taxed with the other trustees; and that the tax was illegal and void. Stinson v. Boston, 125 Mass. 348.

Ships and Vessels engaged in the Foreign Carrying Trade.

Pub. Stats., ch. 11, §§ 8-10; 1887, ch. 373; 1889, ch. 286; 1893, ch. 149.

STATE TAX.

See TAXES; WARRANTS; CORPORATIONS, Taxation of Shares in; POLL TAX.

TAXES.
Corporation.

Under Pub. Stats., ch. 13, each town's proportion of these taxes is allowed it in settlement of its State tax.

Highway.

Abolished by Acts of 1871, ch. 298. See HIGHWAYS.

See INTEREST.

Interest on Certain.

On Real Estate.

Taxes on lands are an encumbrance thereon from the date of their assessment.

29. See Hill v. Bacon, 110 Mass. 387.

Lien, 1888, ch. 390, § 30.

Mass. 451.

Cochran v. Guild, 106 Mass.

Coburn v. Litchfield, 132

Poll.

See POLLS; OMITTED ESTATES AND POLLS.

Priority of Claim for.

Pub. Stats., ch. 157, § 104.

Reassessed, Collection of.

When the original assessment of a tax is valid its reassessment is void. Oakham v. Hall, 112 Mass. 535.

The following important decision was given by the Supreme Court of this State in the case of Hubbard v. Garfield, 102 Mass. 72 (1869):

Opinion of the Court.

COLT, J. The defendant, as collector of taxes in the town of Monterey, for the year 1866, justifies the arrest of the plaintiff under a warrant, which, with the accompanying tax list, was committed to

him by the assessors of that town for that purpose. It appears that the tax against the plaintiff, upon which the arrest was made, was originally placed on the list to her husband, Francis A. Hubbard, and was abated by the assessors of the following year, not the same persons who constituted the previous board. The tax so abated was then assessed by the board of 1867 to the plaintiff, with the exception of that part of it which was poll tax, and, in the presence of the defendant, was added to the tax list then in his hands for collection, without any other change made in the list or warrant.

The judge, upon these facts, ruled that the reassessment of the tax was invalid, and the arrest illegal.

It is not necessary to the complete justification of the defendant under his warrant, that the validity and regularity of the proceedings of the assessors in all respects relating to the abatement and reassessment should appear. The collector is certainly entitled to the full protection of the rule which regulates the liability of ministerial officers in the service of process. Chase v. Ingalls, 97 Mass. 524.

And where the assessors have jurisdiction of the subject-matter, and the process is regular on its face, he is not bound to examine into the legality of the previous proceedings, and cannot be affected by the existence of any fact not disclosed which deprives them of jurisdiction in that particular case.

Upon a careful consideration of those statutes, mainly to be found in the General Statutes, ch. 11, which provide for the election and define the duties of the board of assessors, we are of the opinion that the warrant and tax list under which this arrest was made furnish a sufficient justification of the defendant.

The provisions of section 53 are broad in their terms: "Every tax except a poll tax, which is invalid, by reason of any error or irregularity in the assessment, which has not been paid or which has been recovered back, may be reassessed by the assessors, for the time being, to the just amount to which, and upon the estate or to the person to whom, it ought at first to have been assessed."

The reassessment may be made after the expiration of the year by an entirely new board of assessors.

It extends to a tax which has been paid and recovered back by process of law, and which would usually carry the time far beyond the expiration of the year.

It may be used to correct an error which affects the entire list, as in the case of Goodrich v. Lunenburg, 9 Gray, 38, the decision of which manifestly occasioned the statute provision in question.

Or to cure an error discovered in any one or more of the individual . taxes.

It reaches every description of error that may arise, either in regard to amount or estate or person.

There was authority enough, therefore, in the assessors to reassess the tax in question to the plaintiff.

The only difficult question is, whether they legally exercised it in this instance.

It is obvious that the reassessment, whenever made, by whichever board of assessors, must be based upon the valuation of the year in which the tax was first assessed. It must be made in pursuance of the original vote of the town, and the warrants of the State and county requiring it; and all corrections must have reference to them. It is insisted by the plaintiff, that, under the statute, like proceedings must be had as are required in the original assessment; that the reassessed tax list, with a warrant specifying a reason for their

action, must be committed by the assessors to the collector for the time being.

If the error or irregularity in any given case were such as to invalidate the entire assessment, it would seem to be indispensable that an entire new list should be prepared, and should be accompanied with a new warrant.

But there is not the same necessity where the error is in the individual assessment, and there is nothing in the law which expressly requires it. It is to be borne in mind that the process under which the collector acts is in some respects peculiar and anomalous.

The warrant refers to the tax list which accompanies it as one of the documents constituting the collector's authority. If the warrant is lost or destroyed, the assessors may issue a new one, which shall have the same force and effect as the original, and, if issued by a new board, must have reference to the same original list.

The tax list is liable to be changed, from time to time, while in the collector's hands, by abatements and, what is more to the point, by additions thereto.

At the time when the power of reassessment under this statute was given, new names of tax payers were required to be added in certain cases of omission.

By section 50, persons who were liable to be taxed at the last annual assessment, and who applied seven days before an election, were to be taxed upon their polls and estates in the same manner as they would have been originally, with the further provision that the taxes so assessed be entered in the tax list of the collector, to be collected and paid over as specified in his warrant.

Thus the written warrant and authority of the collector, after it had been delivered to him for execution, was subject to be changed and added to by the board from which it issued, or in case of the death, removal or disability of any of its members, by their successors in office.

The last-cited section was indeed repealed by the Stat. of 1865, ch. 206, § 2, and similar provisions were made by the Stat. of 1868, ch. 211, § 2, and 1869, ch. 443.

The subsequent appeal does not affect this discussion, which relates to the interpretation to be given to the law at the time of its enact

ment.

The intention of the law is to be judged of with reference to the nature of the proceedings which it affects, and the character given to them by previous legislation; and, with the aid thus derived, it is apparent that the assessors may add new names to the collector's list, as at least one legal mode of making the reassessment.

This mode would be less open to objection where the addition is made during the year by the same assessors, and before the expiration of the collector's term of office.

But the assessors constitute a tribunal with powers which imply a continued and uninterrupted existence, not limited to the individuals who at any given time compose it. And, if this were otherwise, the law in question expressly gives the power of reassessment to the assessors for the time being.

In regard to the collector, although his term of office has expired, he still has the power to complete the collection of taxes committed to him (Gen. Stats., ch. 12, § 2); and this, of course, embraces those which have been legally added to the list in his hand, and which, under the peculiar process, relate back to the original warrant, and are brought within its authority.