Catholic Media Groups, Inc. v. Meyer

879 P.2d 480, 18 Brief Times Rptr. 1338, 1994 Colo. App. LEXIS 214, 1994 WL 391401
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 28, 1994
DocketNo. 93CA0148
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 879 P.2d 480 (Catholic Media Groups, Inc. v. Meyer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Catholic Media Groups, Inc. v. Meyer, 879 P.2d 480, 18 Brief Times Rptr. 1338, 1994 Colo. App. LEXIS 214, 1994 WL 391401 (Colo. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinions

Opinion by

Judge HUME.

Petitioner, Catholic Media Groups, Inc., (CMG) appeals, and respondent, Natalie Meyer, Secretary of State of Colorado, (Secretary) cross-appeals from a judgment of the district court interpreting various provisions of the Bingo and Raffles Law, § 12-9-101, et seq., C.R.S. (1991 Repl.Vol. 5A) (Bingo Act). We affirm in part, reverse in part, and dismiss as moot one contention asserted on appeal.

The pertinent facts in this case are undisputed. Under the Bingo Act, a licensee is required to pay an administrative fee on the proceeds of “any game of chance” it conducts. CMG, as a licensee, submitted reports for the last quarter of 1991 and the first quarter of 1992 to the Secretary as required relative to bingo, raffle, and pull tab games conducted under its license. The Secretary later notified CMG by letter that the administrative fee had been underpaid for these two quarters.

On the reports, CMG had allocated and deducted certain rent and security guard expenses from the gross receipts for bingo as well as from the gross receipts for its pull tab games. CMG then subtracted the net loss on its bingo games from the net gains derived from its pull tab and raffle games. The administrative fee was paid based upon this calculation.

The Secretary informed CMG that expenses for rent and security could be deducted only from the gross receipts of bingo games and that the administrative fee was to be paid on the net proceeds of each game separately rather than the net proceeds of all games cumulatively.

As a result of these controversies, CMG filed a petition with the Secretary, under Secretary of State Rule 1, 8 Code Colo.Reg. 1505 — 4, requesting that certain declaratory orders be issued pertinent to calculation of the administrative fee. The Secretary issued an order rejecting CMG’s interpretation of the statutes.

CMG subsequently filed a petition for review with the district court seeking to reverse the Secretary’s decision. The district court affirmed the Secretary’s decision in part and reversed in part. These appeals followed.

I.

CMG contends that the trial court erred in determining that the Secretary properly assessed an administrative fee pursuant to § 12-9-108(6), C.R.S. (1991 Repl. Vol. 5A), on the net proceeds of each game of chance separately, rather than on all the games cumulatively. We agree.

A statute must be interpreted in accord with the presumption that the General Assembly intended a fair, just, and reasonable result. Section 2-4-201(1)(c), C.R.S. (1980 Repl.Vol. 1B). Two statutory provisions concerning the same subject matter must, if possible, be construed together to arrive at a harmonious, just, and reasonable result consistent with such legislative intent. Yuma County Board of Equalization v. Cabot Petroleum, 856 P.2d 844 (Colo.1993).

In addition, a court should not follow a construction that leads to an absurd result. State Board of Medical Examiners v. Saddoris, 825 P.2d 39 (Colo.1992).

[482]*482Section 12-9-108, C.R.S. (1991 Repl.Vol. 5A) contains provisions governing the quarterly reports that bingo-raffle licensees are required to submit to the Secretary. Section 12 — 9—108(1)(a), C.R.S. (1991 Repl.Vol. 5A) requires a bingo-raffle licensee to include in its quarterly reports the “net proceeds derived from each such game of chance....” (emphasis added) Section § 12-9-108(6), C.R.S. (1991 Repl.Vol. 5A) provides that an administrative fee “shall be paid ... upon the proceeds of any game of chance held, operated, or conducted under the provisions of this article....” (emphasis added)

CMG contends that the word “any,” as used in § 12-9-108(6), means “all,” which in turn means all games collectively conducted and reported by a given licensee. We agree with that contention.

In order for §§ 12-9-108(1)(a) and 12-9-108(6) to be read in harmony, we conclude that the General Assembly’s intent was to require separate, rather than cumulative, reporting of the proceeds of each game conducted by the licensee for monitoring and regulatory purposes and for the application of proceeds in conformity with the statute. However, the aggregate net proceeds are used to calculate the fees required by § 12-9-108(6). In using the word “any” rather than “each,” in the latter subsection governing fees, we conclude that the General Assembly intended the words to have different meanings.

We find further support for this conclusion in the fact that other provisions of the Bingo Act indicate a legislative intent to treat the authorized games separately for certain purposes. Thus, in § 12-9-102(11), C.R.S. (1991 Repl.Vol. 5A), “lawful use” is defined as “the devotion of the entire net proceeds of a game of chance to lawful purposes.” (emphasis added) Again, in § 12-9-107(4), C.R.S. (1991 Repl.Vol. 5A), the General Assembly has provided that “the entire net proceeds of any game shall be devoted to a lawful use or uses.” (emphasis added) These statutes support the necessity of separate itemization for purposes of reporting without affecting the construction of the subsection governing the computation of fees.

The statutory construction urged by the Secretary would allow different administrative fees to be imposed upon the same amount of net profits depending entirely upon whether the fee is calculated separately for each game or whether it is calculated on the aggregate profit from all the games. Under the Secretary’s construction, a licensee who derived a profit of $1,000 in each of three allowable types of games of chance would be required to pay 3% of $3,000 or $90 in administrative fees, while another licensee who had a $5,000 profit from pull tabs, a $1,000 loss from bingo, and a $1,000 loss from raffles would be required to pay 3% of $5,000 or a $150 administrative fee on the identical net profit of $3,000.

Ordinarily, we accord “great deference” to the interpretation of the Secretary as the governmental authority charged with enforcing the Act. El Paso County Board of Equalization v. Craddock, 850 P.2d 702 (Colo.1993). However, in our view, such unequal and haphazard treatment of licensees is not fair, just, or reasonable. And, to the extent that the Secretary’s construction thus leads to an unintended, unfair, and absurd result, we decline to accord the usual presumption in favor of the administrative agency’s interpretation of the statutes in question.

II.

CMG also contends that the trial court erred in failing to grant its request for a declaratory order providing that the term “net profits” as used in § 12-9-107(12), C.R.S. (1991 Repl.Vol. 5A), means net profits of all games of chance collectively, including pull tabs. We need not address this issue.

Section 12-9-107, C.R.S. (1991 Repl.Vol. 5A) includes general provisions governing the operation of the games of chance. At the time the trial court ruled on this issue, § 12-9-107(12) provided:

Any licensee which does not report, during any one-year period, net profits will be required to show cause before the licensing authority why its right to conduct games of bingo should not be revoked.

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879 P.2d 480, 18 Brief Times Rptr. 1338, 1994 Colo. App. LEXIS 214, 1994 WL 391401, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/catholic-media-groups-inc-v-meyer-coloctapp-1994.