Aloha Foundation, Inc., In re, 102-75

• Decision Date: 06 April 1976
• Docket Number: No. 102-75,102-75
• Court: Vermont Supreme Court
• Parties: In re ALOHA FOUNDATION, INC.

Page 74

360 A.2d 74

134 Vt. 239

In re ALOHA FOUNDATION, INC.

No. 102-75.

Supreme Court of Vermont.

April 6, 1976.

Harry A. Black, of Black & Plante, White River Junction, for Aloha Foundation, Inc.

Otterman & Allen, Bradford, for Towns of Fairlee and West Fairlee.

Before BARNEY, C. J., and DALEY, LARROW, and BILLINGS, JJ., and SHANGRAW, C. J. (Ret.), Specially Assigned.

BARNEY, Chief Justice.

This case is the consolidation of two tax appeals. The plaintiff, a non-profit corporation, owning lands in the Towns of Fairlee and West Fairlee, on which it operates summer camps, claims that the property is exempt from taxation under the provisions of 32 V.S.A. § 3802. On appeal to the Orange Superior Court from the respective boards of civil authority, the court found that the claimed exemption was not applicable. Appeal here followed, limited to that issue.

32 V.S.A. § 3802 lists, in fourteen subsections, various kinds of property that are altogether exempt from taxation. Other properties are exempt from local taxation upon vote of the towns. See, e. g., 32 V.S.A. § 3831(a) and §§ 3834-3841. The plaintiff in this case seeks exemption under subsection (4) of 32 V.S.A. § 3802, which applies generally to 'Real and personal estate granted, sequested or used for public, pious or charitable uses.' The subsection goes on to relate itself specifically to certain kinds of uses such as churches, libraries, colleges, academies or other public schools. There is no specified category in this subsection which refers to the plaintiff's situation.

32 V.S.A. § 3832, a later statute, must be read with 32 V.S.A. § 3802(4), since it sets the limits for the application of the exemption for public, pious, or charitable uses. Fort Orange Council, Inc. v. French, 119 Vt. 378, 382, 125 A.2d 835 (1956). Subsection 7 of § 3832 provides that there shall be no such exemption for:

Real and personal property of an organization when the property is used primarily for health or recreational purposes, unless the town or municipality in which the property is located so votes at any regular or special meeting duly warned therefor.

Under this statutory pattern the plaintiff had a double burden. It had to demonstrate that it was entitled to tax exemption under 32 V.S.A. § 3802(4), and, at the same time, establish that its situation was not governed by the just-quoted caveat of 32 V.S.A. § 3832(7). If the facts bring the case within the application of subsection (7), that will control and there can be no tax exemption without a vote of the town concerned. Experiment in International Living, Inc. v. Town of Brattleboro, 127 Vt. 41, 46, 238 A.2d 782 (1968). The plaintiff is also faced with the rule that statutes exempting from taxation are construed most strongly against those who claim their benefit. University of Vermont v. Town of Essex, 129 Vt. 607, 612, 285 A.2d 728 (1971).

The summer camping enterprise involved has had a long history. The Gulick family began the operation with the founding of Aloha Camp in 1905. Within seventeen years, two other camps had been added. Aloha is a camp for girls from twelve to seventeen years of age; Aloha Hive is a camp for girls from seven to twelve, and Lanakila is for boys from eight through fourteen. Eventually the operation was incorporated, and the camps were run as commercial enterprises until about 1969.

At that time the Massachusetts business corporation was taken over and absorbed by a Vermont non-profit corporation, the Aloha Foundation, Inc., party to this suit. More than $250,000.00 has been contributed by friends of the Foundation towards its purposes. It is exempt from federal and state income taxation as a charitable and educational corporation.

The board of trustees of the Foundation consists of former campers and counselors, or of parents of campers or counselors. The...