Undercofler v. Hospital Authority of Forsyth County

• Decision Date: 19 October 1965
• Docket Number: No. 23164,23164
• Citation: Undercofler v. Hospital Authority of Forsyth County, 145 S.E.2d 487, 221 Ga. 501 (Ga. 1965)
• Parties: Hiram K. UNDERCOFLER, Commissioner, v. HOSPITAL AUTHORITY OF FORSYTH COUNTY.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

Page 487

145 S.E.2d 487

221 Ga. 501

Hiram K. UNDERCOFLER, Commissioner, v. HOSPITAL AUTHORITY OF FORSYTH COUNTY.

No. 23164.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Oct. 19, 1965.

Rehearing Denied Nov. 4, 1965.

Syllabus by the Court

1. By section 88-1803 of the Georgia Health Code (Code Ann. § 88-1803; Ga.L.1964, pp. 499, 599) whereby hospital authorities are given the same tax exemptions as cities and counties, the Hospital Authority of Forsyth County is entitled to the exemption from sales and use taxes given counties and cities under section 2 of the 1960 amendment (Ga.L.1960, pp. 153, 156) to the 1951 Act (Ga.L.1951, p. 360).

2. The last sentence of Code Ann. § 88-1803, supra, whereby hospital authorities are given the same exemption from taxes as cities and counties are now granted, does not offend Art. III, Sec. VII, Par. VIII of the Constitution (Code Ann. § 2-1908; Const. of 1945). It is germane to the subject matter stated in the caption and therefore conforms to the Constitution and is valid.

This case involves the question of whether or not hospital authorities are exempt from the payment of sales and use taxes. The Hospital Authority of Forsyth County filed a petition to recover sales and use taxes allegedly erroneously collected by the State Revenue Commissioner, to which he filed a general demurrer and an answer. After a hearing on his demurrer as amended, the court overruled the same, and the exception is to that judgment. By amendment, a constitutional attack was made upon the last sentence of section 88-1803 of the Georgia Health Code (Code Ann. § 88-1803; Ga.L.1964, pp. 499, 599), which seemingly grants hospital authorities the same exemptions and exclusions from taxes as are now granted to cities and counties for the operation of facilities similar to facilities to be operated by hospital authorities, on the ground that no law or ordinance shall pass which refers to more than one subject matter or contains matter different from what is expressed in the title thereof, claiming that there is no mention of tax exemptions and exclusions in the title of the Georgia Health Code.

Arthur K. Bolton, Atty. Gen., Louis F. McDonald, Asst. Atty. Gen., H. Perry Michael, atlanta, for plaintiff in error.

Jones, Bird & Howell, Trammel E. Vickery, F. M. Bird, Atlanta, for defendant in error.

DUCKWORTH, Chief Justice.

1. It is provided in an amendment (Ga.L.1960, p. 153) that the original sales and use tax act (Ga.L.1951, p. 360) be amended to exempt 'Sales to the United States of America, the State of Georgia, or any county or municipality of said State' from the tax therein provided for. In City of Marietta Hospital Authority v. Redwine, 87 Ga.App. 629, 74 S.E.2d 670, it was held that the original act applied to hospital authorities. After the 1960 amendment (Ga.L.1960, p. 153, supra) it was in 1961 held in Carroll City-County Hospital Authority v. Oxford, 104 Ga.App. 213, 121 S.E.2d 387, that, as amended in 1960, the act still required hospital authorities to pay the taxes therein provided for. Thus in 1964 when the Legislature enacted the Georgia Health Code (Ga.L.1964, p. 499), the Court of Appeals had in the two cases cited above held that hospital authorities were not exempt from the sales and use tax. We think counsel for the defendant in error are correct in their reasoning that hospitals, whether owned directly by a county or city, or by an authority, are designed and intended to serve identical purposes of discharging the governmental obligation to provide for the health of the people. Therefore, no logical reason exists for exempting those owned directly by the government while subjecting those the authorities own to the sales and use tax. Neither is operated for financial profit. Manifestly, the Legislature saw this injustice and sought in the 1964 act to remedy it. It is there provided in section 88-1803 (Code Ann. § 88-1803, supra) that '[h]ospital Authorities shall be granted the same exemptions and exclusions from taxes as are now granted cities and counties for the operation of facilities similar to facilities to be operated by hospital Authorities as provided for under the provisions of this Title.'

The Commissioner, as plaintiff in error, invokes the rule of strict construction of all tax exemptions, citing Cherokee Brick & Tile Co. v. Redwine, 209 Ga. 691, 75 S.E.2d 550; Fulton County Federal Savings & Loan Ass'n. v. Simmons, 210 Ga. 621, 82 S.E.2d 16; and Oxford v. J. D. Jewell, inc., 215 Ga. 616, 112 S.E.2d 601. The cited decisions uphold the rule invoked, but we believe the rule is inapplicable here because the exemption is unambiguous and being so no construction is required as held in the following cases cited by counsel for the defendant in error. Barnes v. Carter, 120 Ga. 895, 48 S.E. 387; Standard Oil Co. of Kentucky v. State Revenue Commission, 179 Ga. 371, 176 S.E. 1; Slaten v. Travelers Insurance Company, 197 Ga. 1, 28 S.E.2d 280; Aldridge v. Federal Land Bank of Columbia, 203 Ga. 285, 46 S.E.2d 578. We find no ambiguity in the words 'the same exemptions and exclusions from taxes as are now granted to cities and counties' as contained in the 1964 act. Nor do counsel for the plaintiff in error contend that these exemption words are ambiguous but that the remainder of the sentence, to-wit: 'for the operation of facilities similar to facilities to be operated by hospital authorities as provided for under this Title,' render the entire exemption sentence ambiguous. We do not agree. The exemption is as plain as the English language can make it, which is: 'the same exemptions and exclusions from taxes as are now granted cities and counties.' We turn to the 1960 amendment of the sales and use tax act and find that cities and counties as well as the State and the United States are exempt from the taxes therein imposed. It is as plain as a b c--no tax on cities and counties...