Court Opinion

ID: 9711461
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:32:21.18895+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:05.205983
License: Public Domain

SAUFLEY, C.J.,
dissenting.
[¶ 59] I concur in the result urged by the dissenting opinion and write separately to address the odd procedural posture of this matter and to note the limited findings upon which I would base the appellate review.
[¶ 60] As the Court’s opinion lays out, Christian Fellowship and Renewal Center’s challenge to the denial of a tax exemption for a portion of its land has previously been reviewed on appeal. See Christian Fellowship & Renewal Ctr. v. Town of Limington, 2001 ME 16, 769 A.2d 834. The result of the first appeal was a remand to the County Commissioners for factual findings sufficient to allow for a complete review on appeal. Id. ¶ 19, 769 A.2d and 840-41.
[¶ 61] When the County Commissioners completed their actions on remand, they concluded again that the exemption was not available for the approximately eighty-eight acres outside the area in which the food pantry was run.
[¶ 62] The parties and their attorneys, in a misguided effort to create a more thorough record, then entered into stipulations intended to supplement the County Commissioners’ decision. Regrettably, those stipulations were not a part of the County Commissioners’ findings and do not reflect the factual findings or conclusions of the County Commissioners.
[¶ 63] Thus, as to this issue, I agree with the majority’s comment at footnote 2 clarifying that “[correction or stipulation of the record provisions in the rules are not intended to permit addition to the record of new facts or materials, or replacement of the fact-finder’s decision with one more to the liking of the parties,” and citing Beane v. Maine Insurance Guaranty Ass’n, 2005 ME 104, ¶¶ 9-12, 880 A.2d 284, 286-87.
[¶ 64] Accordingly, distinct from the dissent and the majority, I would not use or rely on those stipulations in any way. Because we must review the findings of the adjudicators, in this case the County Commissioners, not the stipulations of the parties, I would rely only on the County Commissioners’ findings. When viewed in light of the law as articulated in the dissenting opinion, those findings are supported by the record, and accordingly, I join in the result urged by the dissenting opinion.