Weatherly Area School District

49 Pa. D. & C.3d 639, 1988 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 224
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Carbon County
DecidedOctober 24, 1988
Docketnos. 88-0850, 88-0877, 88-0832
StatusPublished

This text of 49 Pa. D. & C.3d 639 (Weatherly Area School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Carbon County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Weatherly Area School District, 49 Pa. D. & C.3d 639, 1988 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 224 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1988).

Opinion

LAVELLE, P.J.,

— This tax collection action presents several legal challenges to the levy of “amusement taxes” by three local taxing bodies upon whitewater rafting operations in Carbon County.

Plaintiffs, Weatherly Area School District, Township of Lehigh and Jim Thorpe Area School District, each filed substantially identical complaints against one of the two defendants, Whitewater Challengers Inc. and Pocono Whitewater Ltd. Plaintiffs’ complaints seek to collect amusement taxes alleged to be due from defendants. Because each of these cases involve facts which are identical in all material respects and present common questions of law, upon joint motion of counsel for plaintiffs, we consolidated these actions for trial.

The parties stipulated that the issue of defendants’ liability for the taxes be bifurcated from the [641]*641issue of damages, and that the court determine the issue of liability first. The parties also agreed to submit their case on the issue of liability to the court on a stipulated set of facts and exhibits.

After carefully reviewing the record and after considering the briefs and oral argument of counsel, we make the following

FINDINGS OF FACT

(1) Plaintiffs, Weatherly Area School District and Jim Thorpe Area School District, are school districts of the fourth class incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Plaintiff, Township of Lehigh, is a township of the second class incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

(2) Defendants Whitewater Challengers Inc. and Pocono Whitewater Ltd. (referred to collectively as “Rafters”), are Pennsylvania corporations engaged in the business of offering whitewater equipment rentals, guided tours and instructions on whitewater rafting on the Lehigh River within the Lehigh Gorge State Park.

(3) Lehigh Gorge State Park is property owned by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of General Services, and maintained and operated by the Department of Environmental Resources, Bureau of State Parks.

(4) Weatherly Area School District includes the following municipalities in Carbon County: Lehigh Township, Lausanne Township, Eastside Borough, and north Kidder Township. Jim Thorpe Area School District includes south Kidder Township, Penn Forest Township and Jim Thorpe Borough.

(5) Over a three-year period, substantially identical “amusement taxes” were adopted by each of the plaintiffs as follows: Jim Thorpe Area School Dis[642]*642trict by resolution adopted May 23, 1983, and effective November 1, 1983; Weatherly Area School District by resolution adopted May 26, 1982, and effective July 1, 1982; and Township of Lehigh by ordinance adopted June 2, 1980, and effective five days thereafter. The ordinance and two resolutions will be referred to collectively throughout this opinion as “resolutions.”

(6) The amusement taxes are applicable to admission of patrons to “places of amusement” that are “within the limits” of the school district or township. The amusement taxes range from 2.5 percent to 5 percent of the amount of admission fee charged by the rafters.

(7) The resolutions place a duty to collect the amusement tax upon the “owner” of an amusement, which is defined in the resolutions as the “(person) in possession and operation of those activities designated as amusements.”

(8) Under the resolutions, the owners of an amüsement are required to submit either quarterly or monthly • reports to the plaintiffs detailing the amount of amusement taxes collected from patrons during that reporting period. At the time the report is submitted, the owner of an amusement is required to pay the full amount of amusement taxes collected from patrons during that reporting period.

(9) From the effective date of the amusement taxes and until March 31, 1986, the Rafters made payments of the amusement taxes to plaintiffs.

(10) Since March 31, 1986, the Rafters have refused to continue paying the amusement taxes and have discontinued all payments of the amusement taxes to the plaintiffs, notwithstanding plaintiffs’ demands for such payments.

(11) Under section 1904-A of the Pennsylvania Administrative Code, Act of July 11, 1985, P.L. 232, [643]*643§2, 71 P.S. §510-4, effective January 1, 1986, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Environmental Resources, began licensing the Rafters in connection with the operation of their rafting activities by requiring execution of written documents titled “concession license agreements.” The concession license agreements set forth the terms and conditions of the agreements in effect between the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Rafters during the relevant tax periods.

(12) The rafts utilized in the rafting operations are owned and provided by the Rafters.

(13) The principal office of defendant Whitewater Challengers Inc. is Star Route 6A-1, Eastside Borough, White Haven, Carbon County, Pa., which is within the limits of the Weatherly Area School District.

(14) Patrons of the rafting activities operated by Whitewater Challengers Inc. assemble at the Whitewater Challengers’ “campground” situate in Lehigh Township, Carbon County.

(15) Whitewater Challengers Inc. makes transportation available to patrons from the “campground” as aforesaid to the point of embarkation on the Lehigh River within lands of the Lehigh Gorge State Park.

(16) Patrons are then guided down the Lehigh River by employees of Whitewater Challengers Inc. to a point of debarkation at a point within the Le-high Gorge State Park either in the Village of Rockport, Lehigh Township, or in the Borough of Jim Thorpe.

(17) Whitewater Challengers Inc. makes transportation available to patrons from the point of debarkation and returns them to the Whitewater Challengers’ “campground.”

(18) Defendant Pocono Whitewater Ltd. ’s princi[644]*644pal office is situate at Route 903, Jim Thorpe, Carbon County, Pa., which is within the limits of the Jim Thorpe Area School District.

(19) Patrons of the rafting activities operated by Pocono Whitewater Ltd. assemble at the place of business of Pocono Whitewater in Jim Thorpe.

(20) Pocono Whitewater Ltd. makes transportation available to patrons from its place of business to the point of embarkation on the Lehigh River within lands of the Lehigh Gorge State Park.

(21) Patrons are then guided down the Lehigh River by . employees of Pocono Whitewater Ltd. to the point of debarkation at a point in the Lehigh Gorge State Park.

(22) Pocono Whitewater Ltd. makes transportation available to patrons from the point of debarkation and returns them to Pocono Whitewater’s place of business in Jim Thorpe.

(23) The Lehigh River is designated as a Pennsylvania scenic river under the Lehigh Scenic River Act, Act of April 5, 1982, P.L. 222, §1, 32 P.S. §820.61 et seq.

DISCUSSION

The Rafters mount several alternative, yet related, legal challenges to plaintiffs’ amusement taxes.

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Bluebook (online)
49 Pa. D. & C.3d 639, 1988 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 224, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/weatherly-area-school-district-pactcomplcarbon-1988.