Opinion
No. 45613.
March 12, 1976.
Taxaton — real estate taxes — trust held by cemetery association for future use — denial of exemption — propriety.
Petition in the Hennepin County District Court by Sunset Memorial Park Association, Inc., a cemetery corporation, to recover real estate taxes assessed and levied by said county for the year 1962 and the years 1964 to 1968 against a tract owned by petitioner. The court, Dana Nicholson, Judge, denied relief, and petitioner appealed from an order denying its motion for a new trial. Affirmed.
Swanson Prueter, John L. Prueter, and Lawrence E. Meuwissen, for appellant.
Gary W. Flakne, County Attorney, and Paul R. Jennings, Assistant County Attorney, for respondent.
Heard before Kelly, MacLaughlin, and Yetka, JJ., and considered and decided by the court en banc.
Petitioner appeals from an order denying petitioner's motion for a new trial. After a trial to the court, the district court declared that certain land is not exempt from real estate taxation as a "public burying ground" under Minn. Const. art. 9, § 1. We affirm.
The record reveals that the 29.55 acres in question were held in a totally undeveloped state and were used for only one burial in 20 years before being sold at a profit of $12,000 per acre in 1968. Regarding the holding of land by cemeteries for future use, this court commented in State v. Ritschel, 220 Minn. 578, 589, 20 N.W.2d 673, 678 (1945):
"Owning and holding land for such future needs, if reasonable in amount and not beyond reasonable anticipation, are incidental to operating a cemetery." (Italics supplied.)
The trial court extensively reviewed all of the facts and case law in his memorandum, and found that any development or use of this land for cemetery purposes was beyond reasonable anticipation. Upon our examination of the record, we cannot say that such a finding was clearly erroneous. We have carefully considered other assignments of error urged by petitioner, and we find them to be without merit.
Affirmed.