Court Opinion

ID: 9641978
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:44:48.490196+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:41.480203
License: Public Domain

NIX, Justice,
dissenting.
The majority appears to have centered its analysis upon the fact that appellant is a hospital and concludes that because a hospital promotes health, if it is public, it should be tax exempt. However, our case law has established a three-pronged test to be applied when a claim is made for real estate tax exemption under the Pa. Const., art. VIII, § 2 and 72 P.S. § 5020-204(a)(3) (Supp.1981-82). The test is set forth in Woods School Tax Exemption Case, 406 Pa. 579, 584, 178 A.2d 600, 602 (1962):
[T]o obtain the claimed exemption from taxation, [appellant] must affirmatively show that the entire institution, (1) is one of “purely public charity”; (2) was founded *244by public or private charity; (3) is maintained by public or private charity. [Emphasis added.]
Accord, Four Freedoms House of Phila., Inc. v. City of Philadelphia, 443 Pa. 215, 279 A.2d 155 (1971); Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics Tax Exemption Case, 435 Pa. 618, 258 A.2d 850 (1969).
Moreover, in Four Freedoms House of Phila., Inc. v. City of Philadelphia, supra, a review of the pertinent law for such cases revealed:
Since liability of all real estate is the rule with exemption the exception, e.g., Dougherty v. City of Philadelphia, 112 Pa.Superior Ct. 570, 172 Atl. 177 (1934), the burden is placed on the claimant to bring itself within the exemption. E.g., Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics Tax Exemption Case, 435 Pa. 618, 258 A.2d 850 (1969); University of Pittsburgh Tax Exemption Case, 407 Pa. 416, 180 A.2d 760 (1962); Wynnefield United Presbyterian Church v. City of Philadelphia, 348 Pa. 252, 35 A.2d 276 (1944); Albright College Tax Assessment Case, 213 Pa.Superior Ct. 478, 249 A.2d 833 (1968). Moreover, statutory provisions exempting property from taxation are subject to a strict construction. E.g., Y.M.C.A. v. Reading, 402 Pa. 592, 167 A.2d 469 (1961); McGuire v. Pittsburgh School District, 359 Pa. 602, 60 A.2d 44 (1948).
433 Pa. at 218, 379 A.2d at 157.
Turning to the case at bar, appellant’s “open-admission policy” coupled with adherence to its by-laws’ prohibition against discrimination or a distinction in the admission of patients based upon race, color, creed, national origin or sex, may satisfy the public part of the first prong of the test.1
Yet, the second and third prongs also must be met. The majority rather summarily dispenses with the requirement of having been founded by a public or private charity by noting the institution has a purpose, the promotion of *245health, which has been accepted as a charitable purpose in regards to an inter vivos or testamentary trust. This simply will not suffice. The key question in the second prong of the three-pronged test is not whether the institution’s activities comply with a definition of charitable purpose but, rather, was the institution begun or founded by gift, either public or private. The fact that appellant corporation is “non-profit” is not decisive of this issue. See, Metropolitan Pittsburgh Nonprofit Housing Corporation v. Bd. of Property Assessment, 480 Pa. 622, 391 A.2d 1059 (1978).
An objective examination of the record reveals that the original property purchased by Drs. Roberts and Grilli in 1956 for a very low price, less than $40,000.00, was deeded to the Tioga Corporation (which is not asserted to have been non-profit and whose principal shareholders were Drs. Roberts and Grilli). A parcel of the original property was sold to the appellant West Allegheny Hospital, (a non-profit corporation whose incorporators were Drs. Roberts, Grilli, Shelhorse, Mrs. Roberts and Mrs. Grilli) for a purchase price of $590,000.00 after having charged and received rent from West Allegheny Hospital for at least nine years. In addition to the huge profit in this transfer, it is also significant that appellant corporation’s first capital acquisition accrued nine years after its incorporation. The record does not support a conclusion that the founding of West Allegheny Hospital was by gift.2 Such a conclusion is necessary to give this prong of the test any meaning. Therefore, the second prong of the test has not been met.
Finally, the third prong of the test has not been met either. Patients have paid or caused to be paid approximately 97% of the amounts billed for in-patient care and 80% of the amounts billed for out-patient care. In addition to payments from third-party payors, appellant has received huge federal sums and employs a collection agency for *246outstanding patient accounts. The majority’s use of the word “revenue” in the proviso to section 204(a)(3) in order to overcome the blatant fact that Drs. Roberts and Grilli have passed the substantial operating costs and capital acquisition costs on to patients and/or the public without any significant accompanying gifts at founding or for maintenance is not in accord with the required strict construction of the statute involved nor the constitutional concept of a “purely public charity.”
It was stated in Hill School Tax Exemption Case, 370 Pa. 21, 23, 87 A.2d 259, 261 (1952). “It requires no citation of authority to demonstrate that a private hospital founded and maintained by a group of doctors for their own convenience, with or without profit, would not qualify for such tax exemption.” It requires no citation of authority to show that a non-profit corporation serving the public as a hospital but (1) founded by several doctors and their wives, without identifiable or quantifiable gift, (2) paid rent to a private corporation owned by two of the same doctors for nine years, (3) delivered a capital gain of over $550,000.00 to that private corporation owned by two of the same doctors, (4) received approximately $1,500,000 in federal money for capital improvements, (5) whose patients cover the major portion of appellant’s operating expenses by paying approximately 97% or 80% of the amount billed through hospital third-party coverage or a collection agency, (6) whose physicians pay a “bed-tax” to the hospital and (7) receives payments from this Commonwealth for treatment of those on welfare, does not qualify for the tax exemption.
Passing a substantial part of operating costs on to appellant’s health care consumers is one thing. Passing an additional part of appellant’s costs on to the public by way of a constitutional real estate tax exemption under these facts is quite another. I would affirm the Commonwealth Court.
HUTCHINSON, J., joins in this dissenting opinion.

. We note that the first prong also requires a pure charity element which is not satisfied merely by the dispensing of medical service.

. After a careful review of the record, I find no evidence of founding monetary gifts. At inception, there were loans made to West Allegheny Hospital. The loans were repaid with interest.