Wolfeboro Camp School, Inc. v. Town of Wolfeboro

• Decision Date: 24 May 1994
• Docket Number: No. 92-762,92-762
• Citation: 642 A.2d 928,138 N.H. 496
• Parties: , 91 Ed. Law Rep. 1020 WOLFEBORO CAMP SCHOOL, INC. v. TOWN OF WOLFEBORO.
• Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court

Page 928

642 A.2d 928

138 N.H. 496, 91 Ed. Law Rep. 1020

WOLFEBORO CAMP SCHOOL, INC. v. TOWN OF WOLFEBORO.

No. 92-762.

Supreme Court of New Hampshire.

May 24, 1994.

Walker & Varney, Wolfeboro and Elizabeth Cazden, Manchester (Robert C. Varney, orally and on the brief, and Ms. Cazden, on the brief), for plaintiff.

Barto and Puffer, P.A., Concord (Mark H. Puffer, on the brief and orally), for defendant.

BROCK, Chief Justice.

The plaintiff, Wolfeboro Camp School, Inc. (camp school), sought an abatement of real property taxes from the Town of Wolfeboro (town), alleging that it was entitled to an exemption as a school under RSA 72:23, IV (1991). The town denied the abatement and the camp school appealed. After a three-day trial, the Superior Court (Mohl, J.) granted a limited abatement.

On appeal before this court, the town argues that the trial court erred in ruling: (1) that the camp school is a school within the meaning of the exemption statute; (2) that even if the property is not fully taxable, the trial court should have allocated the property between taxable "camp" property and exempt "school" property; (3) that certain vacant and unimproved land designated by the camp school for future faculty housing is exempt from taxation; and (4) that other taxable land of the camp school should be valued at $1,500 per acre. We affirm in part and reverse in part.

The camp school is a nonprofit corporation formed in 1977 "exclusively for educational purposes, including the organization and operation of a summer school and related activities." Its articles of agreement require that upon dissolution its assets be distributed to a nonprofit organization established for similar purposes. The camp school's property consists of approximately 45.7 acres of land with frontage on Rust Pond in Wolfeboro. Seventeen acres contain nineteen buildings, ninety-seven tent sites, and a variety of recreational facilities. The trial court held this property to be tax exempt. The remaining 28.5 acres consist of vacant, unimproved land, of which 4.4 acres has been designated by the camp school as the future site of faculty housing. The trial court ruled that the 4.4 acre parcel is tax exempt and that the remaining acreage is taxable.

The camp school program operates for seven weeks each summer. Approximately 200 children between the ages of twelve and eighteen attend, of whom the majority are boarders. The camp school employs over thirty faculty members, drawn mainly from a number of recognized independent schools, the majority of whom reside on the camp school grounds while the program is in session. Faculty members preside at meals, and supervise, tutor, coach, and otherwise assist the children as needed.

The program offers courses of instruction in subjects including reading, writing, vocabulary, Latin, French, Spanish, English, United States and European history, mathematics, algebra, geometry, pre-calculus, biology, and chemistry. Classes meet for five fifty-minute periods a day, six days a week. Children are required to take three academic subjects and must attend supervised study periods for two hours, five evenings per week. Children are tested regularly, grades and written reports are given weekly, and final academic reports are forwarded to each child's parents and to the school the child attends during the academic year. Some children earn credit toward their high school diploma; whether credit is given is within the discretion of the child's secondary school.

The program also includes a variety of recreational activities. For two hours on weekday afternoons, children participate in such sports as volleyball, baseball, basketball, tennis, and swimming. Approximately once a week, the camp school has voluntary athletic matches against local camps. In addition, children fourteen years of age or younger are required to participate in a "water, land and mountains program" that includes training in such areas as basic boating, water safety, and camping, culminating in one weekend camping trip in the White Mountains. Children ages fifteen and sixteen must attend one one-night camping trip during the summer.

The town first argues that the trial court erred as a matter of law in ruling that the camp school is a "school" within the meaning of RSA 72:23, IV. The statute provides:

"The following real estate and personal property shall, unless otherwise provided by statute, be exempt from taxation:

. . . . .

IV. The buildings and structures of schools, seminaries of learning, colleges, academies and universities organized or incorporated or carrying on their principal activities in this state and owned, used and occupied by them for the purposes for which they are established ... and the land thereto appertaining but not including lands and buildings not used and occupied directly for the purposes for which they are organized or incorporated...."

The town argues that the statutory exemption is available only to institutions that qualify as schools within the meaning of New Hampshire's education statutes and regulations and that are approved by the department of education. See RSA ch. 189 (1989 and Supp.1993); N.H.Admin. Rules, Ed. 306. Because the camp school's program does not, among other things, contain a sequence of courses, lead to a diploma, or operate for 180 days each year, the town contends that it cannot satisfy the laws governing schools and, therefore, is not entitled to a tax exemption as a school.

A tax exemption statute is construed not with rigorous strictness but "to give full effect to the legislative intent of the statute," and, absent formal legislative history, intent must be gleaned from the plain language of the statute. In re Estate of Martin, 125 N.H. 690, 691, 484 A.2d 1183, 1184 (1984) (quotation omitted). Prior to 1957, the statute authorized a tax exemption to "institutions devoted to educational purposes" provided that "[n]o institution shall be deemed an educational institution for the purpose hereof unless it conducts regular courses of instruction, under a curriculum approved by the state board of education, for at least six months of each calendar year." Laws 1955, ch. 157. These limitations were repealed when the statute was amended in 1957. See Laws 1957, 202:2. Legislative history of the 1957 revision is scant.

The town argues that since 1957 the term "school" has had a specific meaning in the New Hampshire education statutes and if the legislature meant the term "school" in the tax exemption statute to mean something different, it would have made its intent clear. The language used in RSA 72:23, IV, however, does not manifest the intent to restrict the operation of the statute so as to include only those schools established in compliance with the compulsory school attendance laws. The fact that the 1957 amendment eliminated the specific restrictions for qualifying educational institutions undermines the town's position.

The construction of a bright-line test for determining what constitutes an educational institution under the statute is impossible. New Canaan Academy v. Town of Canaan, 122 N.H. 134, 137, 441 A.2d 1174, 1176 (1982). "[E]ach case will necessarily depend on its own peculiar facts," aided by reference to four general guidelines: (1) whether the institution's purposes are "educational--i.e., intended to develop the faculties and powers and the expansion of knowledge through a systematic course of instruction or schooling as distinguished from the mere communication of facts or ideas"; (2) whether the land and buildings in question are "used and occupied directly" for these educational purposes; (3) whether none of its income or profits may be divided among its members or owners or used or appropriated for any purposes other than its educational purpose, RSA 72:23, IV; and (4) how closely the instruction provided compares to "traditional educational methods and objectives." New Canaan Academy, 122 N.H. at 137, 441 A.2d at 1176 (quotation omitted).

The town does not seriously contest that the camp school's purposes are, at least in part, educational. In addition, the town concedes that "the subject matter of the various courses taught at the camp school...