[ G.R. No. 27588. December 31, 1927 ] 51 Phil. 352
[ G.R. No. 27588. December 31, 1927 ]
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OP NUEVA SEGOVIA, AS REPRE- SENTATIVE OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC CHURCH, PLAINTIFF AND APPELLANT, VS. THE PROVINCIAL BOARD OF ILOCOS NORTE ET AL., DEFENDANTS AND APPELLANTS. D E C I S I O N
AVANCEÑA, C.J.:
The plaintiff, the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church, represented herein by the Bishop of Nueva Segovia, possesses and is the owner of a parcel of land in the municipality of San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte, all four sides of which face on public streets. On the south side is a part of the church-yard, the convent and an adjacent lot used for a vegetable garden, containing an area of 1,624 square meters, in which there is a stable and a well for the use of the convent in the center is the remainder of the churchyard and the church. On the north side is an old cemetery with two of its walls still standing, and a portion where formerly stood a tower, the base of which may still be seen, containing a total area of 8,955 square meters. As required by the defendants, on July 3, 1925 the plaintiff paid, under protest, the land tax on the lot adjoining the convent and the lot which formerly was the cemetery with the portion where the tower stood. The plaintiff filed this action for the recovery of the sum paid by it to the defendants by way of land tax, alleging that the collection of this tax is illegal. The lower court absolved the defendants from the complaint in regard to the lot adjoining the convent and declared that the tax collected on the lot, which formerly was the cemetery and on the portion where the tower stood, was illegal. Both parties appealed from this judgment. The exemption in favor of the convent in the payment of the land tax (sec. 344 [c] Administrative Code) refers to the home of the priest who presides over the church and who has to take care of himself in order to discharge his duties. It therefore must, in this sense, include not only the land actually occupied by the church, but also the adjacent ground destined to the ordinary incidental uses of man. Except in large cities where the density of the population and the development of commerce require the use of larger tracts of land for buildings, a vegetable garden belongs to a house and, in the case of a convent, its use is limited to the necessities of the priest, which comes under the exemption. In regard to the lot which formerly was the cemetery, while it is no longer used as such, neither is it used for commercial purposes and, according to the evidence, is now being used as a lodging house by the people who participate Bishop of Nueva Segovia vs. Prov. Board of Ilocos Norte in religious festivities, which constitutes an incidental use in religious functions, which also comes within the exemption. The judgment appealed from is reversed in all its parts and it is held that both lots are exempt from land tax and the defendants are ordered to refund to plaintiff whatever was paid as such tax, without any special pronouncement as to costs. So ordered. Johnson, Street, Villamor, Ostrand, Johns, and Villa-Real, JJ., concur.