CHAPTER X. OF PROPERTY LIABLE TO, AND EXEMPT FROM, REAL ESTATE. TAXATION. $314. Lands and personal estate. § 315. Real estate defined by statute and by the courts. 2 316. Property of turnpike and plank roads. § 317. Lands sold but not conveyed by the state. § 318. State lands in "Forrest Preserve." § 319. State lands assessable for local improvements. $320. Tax sales of state lands vacated. $321. Not real estate. PERSONAL PROPERTY. § 322. Personal property, etc., defined by statute. § 325. Bonds of other states. §326. Capital employed in exporting goods. § 327. Purchase price of real estate owing non-residents. § 328. Moneys of non-residents. § 329. Non-residents capital invested in this state. $330. Shares of bank stock. § 331. Property of foreign corporations. $332. Non-residents having agents here. $333. Foreign insurance companies. PROPERTY EXEMPT FROM TAXATION. § 334. Exemption statutes, how construed. § 339. Real estate exempt from execution § 341. Cemeteries. OTHER EXEMPTIONS. § 342. Poor-houses, alms-houses, etc. § 343. Lands of agricultural societies. § 344. Plank and turnpike roads. § 345. Soldiers' monumental corporations. § 346. Firemen in villages. § 347. United States mint in New York. § 348. United States assay office in New York. § 349. Indian Reservations. § 350. Charitable and reformatory institutions in Kings Co. § 351. Light houses. § 352. Real estate held by municipal corporations for ferries. § 353. Real estate held by a city for water works. § 354. Warner Observatory at Rochester. § 355. Registered vessels of American citizens. $358. Bonds and stocks of New York City. § 359. Bonds, etc., sent to this state for collection. § 360. Deposits in savings banks, etc. § 361. Owners of stocks in incorporated companies. § 362. Interest of resident partner in business in another state. § 363. Goods of non-residents sent here for sale. § 364. Resident's property in another state. REAL ESTATE. § 314. Lands and personal estate. All lands and personal estate within this state, whether owned by individuals or by corporations, shall be liable to taxation, subject to the exemptions hereinafter specified. 2 R. S. (8th ed.) 1082, § 1. 8315. Real estate defined. The term "land" as used in this chapter, shall be construed to include the land itself, above and under water; all buildings and other articles and structures, substructures and superstructures erected upon, under or above, or affixed to the same; all wharves and piers, including the value of the right to collect wharfage, cranage or dockage thereon; all bridges; all telegraph lines, wires, poles and appurtenances; all surface, underground or elevated railroads; all railroad structures, substructures and superstructures, tracks and iron thereon; branches, switches and other fixtures permitted or authorized to be made, laid or placed in, upon, above or under any public or private road, street or grounds; all mains, pipes and tanks laid or placed in, upon, above or under any public or private street or place; all trees and underwood growing upon land; and all mines, minerals, quarries and fossils in and under the same, except mines belonging to the state. The term "real estate" and "real property," whenever they occur in this chapter shall be construed as having the same meaning as the term "land" thus defined. 2 R. S. (8th ed.) 1082, § 2, as amended by Laws 1881, chap. 293. Lands, tenements and hereditaments. The terms real estate and lands construed as co-extensive in meaning with lands, tenements and hereditaments. Pelletreau v. Smith, 30 Barb. 496. An interest therein separate from the title thereto. The term "lands" as used in this statute includes such an interest in real estate as will protect the erections or affixing and possession of buildings and fixtures thereon, though unaccompanied by the fee; and such an interest, with the buildings and fixtures, may be assessed to the owner. People v. Cassity, 46 N. Y. 46, affirming S. C. 2 Lans. 294. The rule thus stated applies to the track, stringers, ties and rails of a railroad laid down in the street. Ibid. Comprehends every species of title or interest. The term "real property " as applied to lands, comprehends every species of title, inchoate or complete, and embraces those rights which lie in contract, executory as well as executed 1 Desty on Taxation, 319. Piers on public property. A pier constructed in the harbor of New York, upon lands belonging to the city, under a grant from it of the right to construct and maintain the pier, and to charge wharfage for its use, is land within the meaning of the above statute and liable to be assessed to the owner and taxed as such. Smith v. Mayor, etc., of New York, 68 N. Y. 552; Smith v. Mayor, etc., 10 Hun, 207. Lessee's buildings. A building erected by a lessee for years, of lands with the right to purchase the lands or to renew the lease, is real estate within the above statute and as such taxable to the owner thereof. People v. Commissioners of Taxes, 80 N. Y. 573. Where a lessee is the owner of the buildings upon the demised premises, the fact that the lessor has, by the lease, a right of re-entry in case of non-performance by the lessee, does not affect his present right to the buildings, or the right to assess them to him. In such case the buildings are real estate within the above statute. People v. Board of Assessors of Brooklyn, 93 N. Y. 308. A building resting on sills upon the ground is taxable as real estate, although by agreement between a lessor and lessee of the land, the latter, who owned the building, has the right to remove the building at the expiration of the lease. Milligan v. Drury, 130 Mass. 428. Elevated Railroads. The foundations, columns and superstructure of an elevated railway are included in the words "lands" and "real estate" as defined in above statute and are taxable as such. People v. Commissioners of Taxes, 82 N. Y. 459. Underground Railroads. The tunnels, tracks, substructures, superstructures, stations, viaducts and masonry of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company, situated on and under Fourth Avenue in the City of New York, are land within the meaning of the above statute. People v. The Commissioners of Taxes, 101 N. Y. 322, reversing S. C. in 23 Hun, 687. As regards taxation it is immaterial whether a railroad is laid upon the surface, placed on pillars or carried through a covered way or tunnel: the structures adapted to sustain it or facilitate and protect its use are within the meaning of the statute defining land. Ibid. Toll bridges. A toll bridge over a navigable river is properly assessed as real estate. Hudson River Bridge Co. v. Patterson, 74 N. Y. 365; Proprietors of Bridges v. State, 21 N. J. Law. 383; S. C. 22 id. 593; Fall v. Marysville, 15 Cal. 391. Companies for supplying natural gas to consumers. In this proceeding, instituted to review an assessment made by the Assessors of the village of Oleon, upon the property of the relator, a foreign corporation doing business in said village, it was shown that its property, within this state, consisted of mains, pipes and tanks for the reception and distribution of natural gas, laid or located beneath or upon the streets of the village under a grant from it, and that its business was the sale and distribution to consumers of natural gas for fuel and light; the company itself producing no gas of its own, but receiving under a contract with another company, its supply of gas from the pipe line of the latter company into its own mains at the village limits. From the return made by the Assessors it appeared that the method adopted by the Assessors, in arriving at the valuation in question, involved some estimate of the value of the relator's franchise from the village; of its contract with the company furnishing the gas, and of its income and profits of its business resulting from that contract: if not as part of its property, at least as elements of the value of that property, and the assessment was held to be erroneous. It was further held that the system of mains, tanks and service pipes, as well as a small lot on which the tanks stood, were required by Laws 1881, chapter 293, to be assessed as real estate, at its full and true value, and that the value of the rights and privileges granted by the village to the company, and the contract with the other company, could not be considered in determining that value. It was also held that Laws 1855, chap. 37, applies to personal and not to real estate. People v. Martin, 48 Hun, 193. Water works company's property. The property of a water works company, incorporated or organized under the general law for the formation of water-works in towns and villages, is taxable as real estate and the fact that it has contracted with the town or village to furnish |