Faith Center, Inc. v. City of Hartford
| Decision Date | 29 July 1982 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 142826,216493,s. 142826 |
| Citation | 473 A.2d 342,39 Conn.Supp. 142 |
| Court | Connecticut Superior Court |
| Parties | FAITH CENTER, INC. v. CITY OF HARTFORD et al. -New Britain |
Gordon T. Allen, Wethersfield, for plaintiff.
Richard M. Cosgrove, Asst. Corp. Counsel, Hartford, for defendant (city of Hartford).
Hoppin, Carey & Powell, Hartford, for defendant (town of Avon).
CHARLES S. HOUSE, State Referee.
In the first case, the plaintiff brought an action against the city of Hartford and the town of Avon by writ, summons and complaint returnable to the Court of Common Pleas on the fourth Tuesday of October, 1977. The action was brought pursuant to the provisions of General Statutes § 12-119 entitled "Remedy when property wrongfully assessed" and applied for relief from taxes levied against personal property of the plaintiff on the October 1, 1976 grand list in each of the municipalities.
In the second case, the plaintiff brought another action against each of the two municipalities by writ, summons and complaint returnable to the Superior Court on February 28, 1978. In this action the plaintiff sought a declaratory judgment declaring personal property of the plaintiff in each of the municipalities to be tax exempt and the continued or prospective taxation of such personal property to be illegal and unconstitutional.
By order of the Superior Court dated July 20, 1981, the two cases were consolidated and were referred to the undersigned state trial referee for hearing and judgment.
As originally filed, the application in the first case was in six counts, the first three counts directed against the city of Hartford and the fourth, fifth and sixth counts against the town of Avon. Briefly stated, each count referred solely to the assessment of personal property of the plaintiff on the list of October 1, 1976, which in Hartford resulted in a tax levy of $23,181.40 and in Avon in a tax levy of $3914.70.
In each count the plaintiff alleged that it is a religious organization, that "the principal or income of the plaintiff is used or appropriated for no other purpose than religious," and that its personal property was exempt from taxation because of the provisions of General Statutes § 12-81(12) which provides tax exemption for "[p]ersonal property within the state owned by, or held in trust for, a Connecticut religious organization, whether or not incorporated, if the principal or income is used or appropriated for religious or charitable purposes or both."
The plaintiff also alleged in the third and sixth counts that the assessment and taxation of its property "occasions excessive governmental entanglement with religion" in violation of the first amendment to the United States constitution, article I of the "Magna Charta," the Preamble to the 1638 Fundamental Orders of Connecticut and article first, §§ 3 and 20 and article seventh of the Connecticut constitution.
By way of relief related to these six counts, the plaintiff sought a refund of the taxes it had paid to each defendant on the list of October 1, 1976, an order removing the personal property of the plaintiff from the tax lists of both defendants and "such other relief as this court may deem just and appropriate."
To the allegations of these six counts addressed to it, the defendant city of Hartford pleaded a general denial. The town of Avon admitted the allegation that it had levied a tax of $3914.70 on the list of October 1, 1976 on personal property of the plaintiff but as to all the other allegations pleaded a denial or insufficient information to form a belief, leaving the plaintiff to its proof. By way of special defense, Avon pleaded that at no time prior to the commencement of the action had the plaintiff presented or offered to present to any proper official of the town any evidence in support of its claim of tax exempt status and that the plaintiff had failed and refused to use an available administrative remedy.
By an "Amended Complaint" dated June 8, 1981, the plaintiff added two counts to its original complaint in the first case. The two counts were similar in content, the new seventh count being addressed against the defendant city of Hartford and the eighth count addressed against the town of Avon. Each added count incorporated, by reference, most of the paragraphs of the first count of the complaint and then added two paragraphs, similar as to each of the municipalities. The substance of the added allegations was that the granting to the plaintiff of tax exempt status by the federal government as a religious organization under §§ 501(c)(3) et seq. of the Internal Revenue Code and the maintenance of that status "definitively established the plaintiff as a 'religious organization' entitled without qualification to a personal property tax exemption under the precise wording of § 12-81(12) of the Connecticut General Statutes." It is further alleged that the refusal of the defendant municipality to recognize the plaintiff as a religious organization entitled to tax exempt status is violative of the supremacy clause of the United States constitution and the resulting deprivation of the plaintiff's rights under the first and fourteenth amendments to the United States constitution affords to the plaintiff "an additional cause of action under Title 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the defendant, said statute providing that anyone who, under color of state statute, deprives another of rights, privileges or immunities secured by the constitution and laws of the United States shall be liable to the injured party, the plaintiff herein."
By way of relief under these added counts, the plaintiff claimed a refund of the taxes paid on the October 1, 1976 lists of both defendants, an order removing the property of the plaintiff from the tax list of both defendants, such other relief as the court deems just and appropriate and an award of attorney's fees "pursuant to Title 42 U.S.C. § 1983."
By way of answer to the added seventh count, the defendant city of Hartford repeated its general denial of the paragraphs incorporated from the first count, denied the newly added allegations, by way of special defense pleaded that the claims of the plaintiff were barred by the statute of limitations and by way of counterclaim claimed attorney's fees should it prevail on the seventh count.
By way of its answer to the added eighth count, the defendant town of Avon pleaded insufficient information to form a belief as to the allegations of paragraphs one through thirteen, leaving the plaintiff to its proof, denied the allegations of the newly added two paragraphs numbers fourteen and fifteen, and by way of counterclaim claimed an award of attorney's fees under the provisions of title 42 of the United States Code § 1988 in the event that it should prevail in the present action.
In the second case, the plaintiff's amended complaint was in eight counts, the first four directed against the defendant city of Hartford and the last four against the town of Avon. The first eleven paragraphs of each count are in the same language and, briefly summarized, recite that the plaintiff is a nonprofit church corporation which owns and operates television station WHCT, Channel 18, that it is exempt from federal income taxes, from the payment of federal unemployment tax contributions, from the Connecticut unemployment compensation tax, from the Connecticut sales and use tax, and from the Connecticut corporation business tax, all of which exemptions recognize the plaintiff's status as a church. Count one then further alleges that the defendant city of Hartford levied and collected taxes on the plaintiff's personal property in excess of $100,000 since the plaintiff received the Channel 18 station in February, 1972. Count two further alleges that the principal and income of the plaintiff is used or appropriated for no other purpose than religious and that the defendant city of Hartford has wrongfully and illegally denied the plaintiff exempt status on its personal property located in Hartford since under the provisions of General Statutes § 12-81(12) that property is exempt from taxation and should have been removed from the city's tax list "immediately upon notice of its being church property." Count three further alleges that if the plaintiff was denied tax exemption of its personal property on the ground that the plaintiff was not a Connecticut religious corporation, denial on that ground unconstitutionally denied the plaintiff equal protection of the laws. Count four alleges that the plaintiff "qualifies in each and every particular for the exemption of its personal property stated in General Statutes § 12-81(12)" and that taxation of the plaintiff church unconstitutionally occasions excessive governmental entanglement with religion.
Counts five through eight are addressed against the town of Avon and recite against that town the same allegations as are directed against the city of Hartford in the first four counts.
By way of relief in the second case, the plaintiff claims (1) a declaratory judgment that the plaintiff's personal property is exempt from taxation pursuant to § 12-81(12) of the General Statutes; (2) a declaratory judgment that the defendants' continued or prospective taxation of the plaintiff's personal property is illegal and unconstitutional; and (3) such other relief as the court may deem just and appropriate under the circumstances.
It was on the basis of the multitudinous allegations contained in the sixteen counts of the plaintiff's two complaints, as thus briefly summarized, that the consolidated cases were tried.
Before discussing the merits of the decisive issues raised in the two cases, it is pertinent to note the provisions of General Statutes § 12-109 concerning one of the duties of assessors as well as the factual background of the dispute between the parties and certain allegations of fact which have been admitted or proved...
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