ATTLEBORO - City residents will get a tax break - when they die.

The state's Appeals Court ruled Wednesday that burial permit fees charged by Attleboro, New Bedford and Taunton are actually "improper taxes" that need not be paid.

Martin Silva, a Fall River funeral director and attorney who has been fighting the fees for years on behalf of his family's business, the Silva-Faria Funeral Homes, said the decision should deal a death blow to the fees.

"Ultimately, now the attorney general has no excuse not to act by way of issuing an edict to all cities and towns saying they can't charge for burial permits anymore," he said.

Fall River has not charged the fee since losing a similar lawsuit several years ago. Attleboro City Solicitor Robert Mangiaratti, who argued the latest case, said the court's ruling makes the fee illegal immediately.

"That's the law of Massachusetts as of today, and my advice to the health department is not to charge that fee," he said.

However Mangiaratti said he plans to urge the mayor and health department to appeal to the state's Supreme Judicial Court.

While the fees are generally small, usually $10 to $20, Silva said the fight was on principle.

State law requires that fees meet three standards: first, they must benefit only the person paying the fee; second, the person paying the fee must have the option to decline the service; and three, the fee must reflect the cost of the service.

At best, burial permit fees only met the third standard, Silva said.

"It really stuck in our craw," he said. "It was the principle of the thing."

While the state's Superior Court ruled the third standard was all that was needed, the Appeals Court decided that the first two standards must also be met, but are not.

The court said burial permits benefit society at large, and that the payer does not have an option to decline the service because the permits are required under health laws.

Mangiaratti said he was disappointed with the analysis. He argued municipalities should be allowed to recover their costs and that the law does not require that all three standards be met in the regulation of public health.

As it stands now, Attleboro will lose $4,000 to $6,000 a year in revenue without the fees.

The city issues 200 to 300 burial permits a year for which it charges $20 each.

In 2007, the city issued 256 burial permits. The fee was increased from $10 to $20 in May of 2007.