Long Island Power Authority v. Anderson

21 Misc. 3d 161
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 22, 2008
StatusPublished

This text of 21 Misc. 3d 161 (Long Island Power Authority v. Anderson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Long Island Power Authority v. Anderson, 21 Misc. 3d 161 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 2008).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Ira B. Warshawsky, J.

Plaintiff Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) moves pursuant to CPLR 3212 for an order granting summary judgment in its action against defendants seeking a declaratory judgment. The action was commenced on August 24, 2007, and the motion was made on February 25, 2008, without engaging in discovery. Predicated on the uncontested facts advanced by plaintiff, and the failure of defendants to identify an argument requiring discovery, the issue is deemed sufficiently ripe for decision.

Plaintiff seeks a declaratory judgment exempting LIPA from the imposition of commercial sewer use assessments, fees, and charges against a property located within Islip, known as Brent-wood (hereinafter the property), an order enjoining defendants from imposing commercial sewer use fees or charges against LIPA on the property, and costs, disbursements, and attorney’s fees. Defendants’ counterclaim for the sum of $2,007,995, of which $1,007,995 is contended to be owed by plaintiff to defendants as a result of the assessments.

Based on the foregoing, the court finds in favor of plaintiff on the demand for the declaratory judgment.

Plaintiff Long Island Power Authority is exempt from taxes and assessments pursuant to Public Authorities Law § 1020-p (part of the LIPA Act [Public Authorities Law § 1020 et seq.]). [163]*163However, LIPA is required to make disbursements known as PILOTs (payments in lieu of taxes) to municipalities negatively impacted by the removal of local properties from the tax rolls during LIPA’s acquisition of the assets of the Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO) in the 1990s. (Id. § 1020-q.) In addition, LIPA has the power to enter into discretionary agreements with any municipality to pay annual sums in lieu of taxes in respect to properties owned within the municipality. (Id. § 1020-f [w].)

In 2003, LIPA became the owner of a parcel of land that was once part of the now defunct Pilgrim State Psychiatric Center, located in Islip, New York. The previous owners of the property had entered into a connection agreement in 1991 with the local sewer agencies that set out sewer design and a fee structure. LIPA subsequently improved its newly acquired property with two gas-fired electric generation units, which are not attached to the local sewer system, do not generate and are not capable of generating sewage. In 2006, LIPA settled a civil action involving the property through a PILOT agreement with the Assessors of the Town of Islip, agreeing to voluntarily pay approximately $2,000,000 for each tax year from 2003/2004 through 2008/2009.

In 2005, the Suffolk County Sewer Districts notified LIPA that an assessment would be imposed on the property for commercial sewer use for the previous two years and subsequent years. The November 2005 notice stated that LIPA owed Suffolk County Sewer District No. 3 Southwest $804,192, the bulk of which was predicated upon an ad valorem, or value of the property, assessment. LIPA contested the assessments, but defendants rejected the requests for reconsideration. Subsequently, an additional statement, dated May 1, 2007, assessed a further $203,803 against LIPA for commercial sewer use in the period of January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007, raising the total amount charged to LIPA by the sewer district to $1,007,995. Seeing unheeded its continuing protests to defendants, plaintiff commenced this action, seeking a declaratory judgment exempting LIPA from these assessments and a permanent injunction for the imposition of commercial sewer use fees on the property.

“ ‘To obtain summary judgment it is necessary that the movant establish his cause of action or defense “sufficiently to warrant the court as a matter of law in directing judgment” in his favor (CPLR 3212, [164]*164subd [b]), and he must do so by tender of evidentiary proof in admissible form.’ ” (Zuckerman v City of New York, 49 NY2d 557, 562 [1980].)

In this summary judgment motion for a declaratory judgment on the assessments, plaintiff predicates its motion on three claims: (1) LIPA is exempt from the imposition of commercial sewer use assessments; (2) the connection agreement, upon which defendants rely, does not authorize the imposition of commercial sewer use charges in this case; and (3) LIPA cannot be assessed for commercial sewer use if the property is unconnected and does not use sewer facilities. Defendants, opposing summary judgment in turn, argue that the remedy of summary judgment is inappropriate in this instance, especially before discovery has taken place, and that LIPA has been properly assessed.

Based upon evidence submitted to the court and the uncontested facts of the case, there are sufficient grounds to direct judgment as a matter of law in favor of the plaintiff.

LIPA Cannot be Assessed by the Sewer District

The LIPA Act provides that:

“The authority shall be required to pay no taxes nor assessments upon any of the property acquired or controlled by it or upon its activities in the operation and maintenance thereof or upon income derived therefrom, provided that nothing herein shall prevent the authority from entering into agreements to make payments in lieu of taxes with the governing bodies of municipalities” (Public Authorities Law § 1020-p [2].)

As a tax-exempt public authority, LIPA is not required to pay any taxes or assessments “upon any of the property acquired or controlled by it.” (Id.) However, to cushion the financial blow to those jurisdictions where taxed property was acquired by LIPA from LILCO, LIPA is required, pursuant to Public Authorities Law § 1020-q (1), to make “payments in lieu of taxes.” (Long Is. Power Auth. v Shoreham-Wading Riv. Cent. School Dist., 195 AD2d 140, 143 [2d Dept 1994].)

As the statute clearly states, LIPA is exempted from taxes or assessments generally, and only need make PILOTs on those properties purchased from LILCO. The property at issue in the instant case, in the Town of Islip, was never owned by LILCO, but was rather a defunct mental hospital, such that even PILOTs are not required. Nevertheless, as a volun[165]*165tary measure, LIPA entered into an agreed PILOT payment schedule with the Town of Islip regarding the property, pursuant to their authority to do so in section 1020-f (w) of the LIPA Act.

The assessment levied upon LIPA by the sewer district falls within the category of taxes and assessments from which LIPA is exempt. That the charge levied on LIPA is an assessment is evident from the district’s seeking of almost exclusively ad valorem charges, and not charges based on actual sewer usage. In fact, defendants’ claim that the sewer bill includes a flow charge and per parcel charge is misleading — there were no flow charges billed and the per parcel charge amounted to approximately $28 per year. (See sewer bill, exhibits 6, 7, 8 to moving papers.) From these bills, it is clear that the overwhelming percentage of the yearly charges were assessments based on property value alone, and are thus a traditional assessment. While LIPA is free to enter into a PILOT agreement with the sewer district if it chooses to do so, there is nothing to compel it to submit to such a payment. The court finds that the assessments, therefore, are invalid.

Connection Agreement

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Related

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35 N.E.2d 19 (New York Court of Appeals, 1941)
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Zuckerman v. City of New York
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Atkin v. Hill, Darlington & Grimm
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27 A.D.2d 626 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1966)
Long Island Power Authority v. Shoreham-Wading River Central School District
195 A.D.2d 140 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1994)
Scotto v. Mei
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
21 Misc. 3d 161, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/long-island-power-authority-v-anderson-nysupct-2008.