Sturdy Memorial Foundation, Inc. v. Board of Assessors of North Attleborough, 60 Mass. App. Ct. 573 (Mass. App. Div. 3/4/2004), No. 02-P-932.

Decision Date04 March 2004
Docket NumberNo. 02-P-932.
Citation60 Mass. App. Ct. 573
PartiesSTURDY MEMORIAL FOUNDATION, INC. <I>vs.</I> BOARD OF ASSESSORS OF NORTH ATTLEBOROUGH.
CourtMassachusetts Appellate Division

Present: BECK, KAPLAN, & PORADA, JJ.

Taxation, Abatement, Exemption, Real estate tax: abatement, Real estate tax: charity, Real estate tax: exemption. Charity.

This court concluded that the Appellate Tax Board (board), in denying applications for abatement of real estate taxes, properly considered all of the appropriate factors in determining whether the taxpayer was operated as a charity, including whether there was an absence of any private inurement and whether benefits from the operation of the taxpayer's medical group practice were bestowed upon a sufficiently large number of persons or an indefinite class so that the community benefited from its operation; moreover, the board did not err in basing its decision following a remand from this court on the record of an earlier hearing in this case, and in the absence of a transcript of that earlier hearing, this court could not say as a matter of law that the board's subsidiary findings of fact were not warranted. [574-577]

This court concluded that substantial evidence supported the ruling of the Appellate Tax Board (board) that the taxpayer's incentive bonus plan for its employee physicians amounted to a diversion of its income or profits to a limited class of persons (its physician employees) in contravention of G. L. c. 59, § 5, Third (a), and therefore rendered the taxpayer ineligible for an exemption from real estate taxes for charitable organizations [577-581]; likewise, this court concluded that it could not say that, on the evidence presented, the board erred in ruling that the taxpayer failed to meet its grave burden of proving that a group medical practice located on the property owned by the taxpayer was operated as a public charity [581-584].

APPEAL from decisions of the Appellate Tax Board.

Robert M. Buchanan, Jr., for the taxpayer.

Robert C. Bliss for Board of Assessors of North Attleborough.

Seth Berman & Jennifer S. Geetter, for Massachusetts Hospital Association, amicus curiae, submitted a brief.

PORADA, J.

This is an appeal by Sturdy Memorial Foundation,

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