Maxwell v. Good Samaritan Hospital Ass'n

161 So. 2d 31
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJanuary 31, 1964
DocketNo. 4416
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 161 So. 2d 31 (Maxwell v. Good Samaritan Hospital Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Maxwell v. Good Samaritan Hospital Ass'n, 161 So. 2d 31 (Fla. Ct. App. 1964).

Opinion

KANNER, Judge.

Appellee, The Good Samaritan Hospital Association, Inc., a non-profit Florida corporation, instituted an injunctive proceeding against appellants, Edgar W. Maxwell' as tax assessor of Palm Beach County,. Stetson O. Sproul as tax collector of that county, and Ray E. Green as Comptroller of the State of Florida. The purpose of the suit is to have the court declare as void the 1962 tax assessment and levy upon certain hospital-owned property assertedly entitled to tax exemption and to permanently enjoin the appellant tax assessor from assessing and the appellant tax collector from collecting the 1962 tax upon that property, which is utilized as housing for nurses and other hospital personnel. Appellants have brought this interlocutory appeal from the chancellor’s order denying their motions to dismiss and for summary decree.

[32]*32Essentially, the complaint, assaulted by appellants for insufficiency to state a cause of action for which relief could be granted, sets out the following allegations:

Appellee is a corporation not for profit licensed by the state board of health and is •exempt from payment of federal income tax. The property in question is located to the south of and adjacent to property upon which appellee’s hospital stands. Appellee is a hospital entitled to tax exemption as a benevolent and charitable institution devoted to benevolent and charitable purposes under the constitution and statutes of Florida and is engaged also in educational and scientific fields including education and training of nurses and medical interns, continuing education for physicians, and medical scientific research. As to the hospital’s property north of that in issue, exemption was allowed by the tax assessor for the year 1962 and all prior years of the hospital’s existence, such exemption having been recognized by the tax assessor on the tax rolls. The property involved is improved with facilities for housing of hospital personnel, including those on twenty-four hour call in case of emergencies. Rentals paid by such personnel are only for the cost of maintenance and repairs and are used for maintenance of the hospital and its facilities. They are devoted •exclusively to the charitable purposes of appellee, and are, in fact, less than sufficient to cover the actual maintenance of the housing. Appellee has found it necessary to have a certain amount of housing available in order to obtain nurses and other personnel needed for efficient operation of the hospital and living quarters have been made available by it for its personnel for many years. Until the year 1962, the property now used for the housing has never been taxed by Palm Beach County, which recognized its exempt status under Article IX, Section 1, Constitution of the State of Florida, F.S.A., and Section 192.06(3), Florida Statutes, F.S.A. A tax in the amount of $3,088.50 was arbitrarily assessed and levied upon the subject property for the year 1962.

Thus, the taxing officials of Palm Beach County and the federal government have recognized the tax exempt status of the hospital itself, so this is not in dispute.

After considering the arguments advanced by appellants, we find we must differ with their position and agree with the ruling of the chancellor.

Exemption from taxes for property used for municipal, educational, literary, scientific, religious, or charitable purposes was created by the Constitution of the State of Florida. Article IX, Section 1 provides, “The Legislature shall provide for a uniform and equal rate of taxation, * * * excepting such property as may be exempted by law for municipal, education, literary, scientific, religious or charitable purposes.” Article XVI, Section 16, states, “The property of all corporations, * * * whether heretofore or hereafter incorporated, shall be subject to taxation unless such property be held and used exclusively for religious, scientific, municipal, educational, literary, or charitable purposes.” The implementing statute, Section 192.06(3), exempts, “Such property of educational, literary, benevolent, fraternal, charitable and scientific institutions within this state, as shall actually be occupied and used by them for the purpose for which they have been or may be organized, provided, not more than seventy-five per cent of floor space of said building or property is rented, and the rents, issues, and profits of said property are used for the educational, literary, benevolent, fraternal, charitable or scientific purposes of said institutions * * * ”. At this point it may be observed that the amendment to Section 192.06, or subsection (13)1 enacted by the 1963 legis[33]*33lature, effective December 31, 1963, specifically allows tax exemption for the housing facility concerned here, but is not operative in this case.

Under the question of sufficiency of the complaint, appellants direct their argument chiefly to the seventy-five per cent rental limitation specified in Section 192.06(3), stating that the complaint is silent about what percentage of the housing facility is rented or available for rent. This, they say, leaves the plain inference that one hundred per cent is rented or available for rent, since the housing facility is a single purpose building, an apartment house for nurses and other hospital personnel. Appellants take the further position that, by the rents charged, the hospital is in competition with private landlords and is engaged in a commercial enterprise. They therefore urge that the complaint alleges no cause of action for which relief could be afforded.

From certain cases of various jurisdictions, there has evolved a majority view supportive of the proposition that tax exemption of a hospital which qualifies for it under constitutional or statutory requirements extends to embrace housing supplied by it for its personnel. Thus, the Supreme Court of California in Cedars of Lebanon Hospital v. Los Angeles County, 1950, 35 Cal.2d 729, 221 P.2d 31, 15 A.L.R.2d 1045, found that a tax exemption allowable to the hospital itself extended also to property used as housing for nurses, student nurses, interns, and other personnel. This case is published at 15 A.L.R.2d 1045 with annotation at page 1064 involving the question of tax exemption for housing provided by a hospital for nurses and others connected with its operation. We are subsequently mentioning other cases dealt within this annotation. A California case expressing the same view as that in Cedars of Lebanon is St. Francis Memorial Hospital v. San Francisco, 1955, 137 Cal.App.2d 321, 290 P.2d 275; see also Fredericka Home for the Aged v. San Diego County, Cal.App. 1949, 206 P.2d 931, affirmed, 1950, 35 Cal. 2d 789, 221 P.2d 68. The Virginia court, in Memorial Hospital Ass’n. of Va. v. County of Wise, 1962, 203 Va. 303, 124 S.E.2d 216, determined that apartment units rented by the hospital to members of its staff had been erroneously assessed for taxation. From the New York jurisdiction comes the case of St. Luke’s Hospital v. Boyland, 1962, 12 N.Y.2d 135, 237 N.Y.S.2d 308, 187 N.E.2d 769

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Saint Joseph's Hospital of Marshfield, Inc. v. City of Marshfield
2004 WI App 187 (Court of Appeals of Wisconsin, 2004)
Ago
Florida Attorney General Reports, 1976
City of Long Branch v. Monmouth Medical Center
351 A.2d 756 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 1976)
Southern Baptist Hospital of Florida, Inc. v. Tax Assessor
30 Fla. Supp. 45 (Duval County Circuit Court, 1968)
St. Luke's Hospital Ass'n v. City of Milwaukee
151 N.W.2d 750 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1967)
Maxwell v. Good Samaritan Hospital Ass'n
166 So. 2d 151 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1964)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
161 So. 2d 31, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/maxwell-v-good-samaritan-hospital-assn-fladistctapp-1964.