FRIENDS OF PENNSYLVANIA LEADERSHIP CHARTER SCHOOL, Appellant v. CHESTER COUNTY BOARD OF ASSESSMENT APPEALS, Appellee.
No. unknown
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
Decided Sept. 24, 2014.
101 A.3d 66
West Chester Area School District, Intervenor. Argued March 12, 2014.
Accordingly, in light of the foregoing, we hold that Appellant‘s prior first-degree burglary convictions rendered him ineligible to receive an RRRI-reduced minimum sentence. Thus, we affirm the order of the Superior Court.
Jurisdiction relinquished.
Chief Justice CASTILLE and Justices SAYLOR, EAKIN, BAER, McCAFFERY and STEVENS join the opinion.
Andrew G. Lehr, Esq., for Friends of Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School.
BEFORE: CASTILLE, C.J., SAYLOR, EAKIN, BAER, TODD, McCAFFERY, STEVENS, JJ.
OPINION
Justice BAER.
Friends of Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School (Appellant) appeals from the order of the Commonwealth Court which held that the retroactive real estate tax exemption provided in Section 1722-A(e)(3) of the Public School Code,
Appellant is a Pennsylvania domestic nonprofit corporation affiliated with the Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School (PALCS), a public cyber charter school,1 which, according to its articles of incorporation, operates exclusively for the support and benefit of PALCS and its affiliated organizations. Appellant owns property in West Chester, Pennsylvania (Property), which is located within Chester County (County) and the West Chester Area School District (School District), and which it leases to PALCS for use as a public cyber charter school.
On August 6, 2007, Appellant appealed the tax assessment for the Property to the Chester County Board of Assessment Appeals (Board) and sought a real estate tax exemption from its 2008 taxes by asserting that it qualified as a purely public charity and was therefore exempt from all local real estate
In March 2009, the trial court affirmed, finding that Appellant was not a purely public charity and therefore was not exempt from local real estate taxes. The Commonwealth Court affirmed in an unpublished memorandum. In re: Appeal of Friends of Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School v. County of Chester Board of Assessment Appeals, 987 A.2d 231 (Table) (Pa.Cmwlth., January 7, 2010, 808 CD 2009); for text see In re: Appeal of Friends of Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School, 808 C.D.2009, 2010 WL 9519256 (Friends I). No further appeals were taken; thus, the Commonwealth Court‘s judgment in Friends I became final. Faced with this final judgment against it, Appellant paid real estate taxes to the County and the School District for the years 2008 and 2009. Appellant additionally paid County real estate taxes for 2010, and was billed for 2010 real estate taxes by the School District.
Following the final judgment in Friends I, the General Assembly amended the Public School Code effective January 15, 2011, to provide for prospective and retroactive real estate tax exemptions for charter schools and certain affiliated entities as follows:
(e)(1) Notwithstanding the provisions of section 204 of the act of May 22, 1933 (P.L. 853, No. 155), known as The General County Assessment Law, all school property, real and personal, owned by any charter school, cyber charter school or an associated nonprofit foundation, or owned by a nonprofit corporation or nonprofit foundation and leased to a charter school, cyber charter school or associated nonprofit foundation at or below fair market value, that is occupied and used by any charter school or cyber charter school for public school, recreation or any other purposes provided for
by this act, shall be made exempt from every kind of State, county, city, borough, township or other real estate tax....
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*
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(3) This subsection shall apply retroactively to all charter schools, cyber charter schools and associated nonprofit foundations that filed an appeal from an assessment, as provided in Article V of The General County Assessment Law, prior to the effective date of this subsection.
In March 2011, Appellant filed an application for prospective real estate tax exemption for the Property pursuant to Section 1722-A(e)(1), asserting that it was an associated nonprofit foundation that leased the Property to PALCS for use as a cyber charter school, which the Board granted on May 5, 2011, commencing with the 2011 tax year.
On June 16, 2011, Appellant filed a request for a refund of real estate taxes paid to the County for tax years 2008 through 2010, seeking retroactive relief, asserting that its unsuccessful assessment appeal in 2007 qualified as “an appeal from an assessment.” See
Appellant appealed the Board‘s denial of its refund request for County real estate taxes to the trial court, but apparently did not appeal the Board‘s denial of its refund request for real estate taxes paid to the School District. Nevertheless, Appellant attempted to argue in its appeal to the trial court that it was entitled to a refund from both entities for real estate taxes paid in 2008 and thereafter and the withdrawal of any unpaid tax bills. It based its claimed exemption on its status as an associated nonprofit foundation that filed an assessment appeal prior to the effective date of Section 1722-A(e)(3), premised on its unsuccessful 2007 appeal that resulted in the final judgment of Friends I.
The trial court first observed that Appellant‘s claim for tax exemption requested only a refund of County real estate taxes from 2008-2010, not school taxes paid during these years, and that the appeal further did not encompass a determination of its obligation to pay school taxes in 2010 or County taxes in 2011. To the extent it perceived that Appellant was attempting to expand the scope of its appeal, the trial court held it would only review those issues included in the verified claim
Addressing whether Appellant qualified for the retroactive exemption provided in Section 1722-A(e)(3), the trial court resolved the appeal on the statutory language. Specifically, the trial court observed that Section 1722-A(e)(1) and (3) expressly differentiates between “nonprofit corporations” and “associated nonprofit foundations,” and provides for retroactive tax relief in (e)(3) only to “associated nonprofit foundations.” According to the trial court, although Appellant premised its argument on an assertion that it was an “associated nonprofit foundation,” which would entitle it to retroactive relief, it had demonstrated in its pleadings only that it was a nonprofit corporation; it did not plead, or support by exhibits, that it was an associated nonprofit foundation. The court then held that Appellant‘s failure to substantiate its assertion that it fell within the nomenclature of Section 1722-A(e)(3) (that it was an “an associated nonprofit foundation“) doomed its request for retroactive relief, and it was not, therefore, entitled to a refund of taxes collected on behalf of the County in 2008, 2009, and 2010. The trial court also dismissed without prejudice other issues relating to school taxes paid by Appellant during those years, reasoning that those issues were not properly before the trial court.
Although it resolved the motion for judgment on the pleadings on the statutory language, the trial court indicated that had it reached the constitutionality of the statute, it would have found it unconstitutional based upon the Remedies Clause and the separation of powers doctrine. In this respect, the trial court examined an unpublished non-precedential memorandum opinion of the Commonwealth Court, In re: Appeal of Collegium Charter School, 23 A.3d 1132 (Table) (Pa.Cmwlth., July 26, 2011, No. 2354 CD 2010), which addressed an identical issue, and found the Commonwealth Court‘s legal analysis therein persuasive.5
In addition to finding that the legislation impaired a vested right in accord with Collegium Charter School, the trial court sub judice also held that it violated the separation of powers
Appellant appealed to the Commonwealth Court, arguing that the trial court erred in limiting its determination to the refund of taxes paid to the County; concluding that Appellant did not qualify for the retroactive tax exemption because it did not plead that it was an associated nonprofit foundation; and finding that the retroactive application of Section 1722-A(e)(3) was unconstitutional. The School District and the Board argued that the trial court‘s order should be affirmed because the retroactive application of Section 1722-A(e)(3) violated, inter alia, the separation of powers doctrine and the Remedies Clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution.
The Commonwealth Court agreed with the Board and the School District and affirmed the trial court, basing its holding on the Remedies Clause analysis in Collegium Charter School. Friends of Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School v. Chester County Board of Assessment Appeals, 61 A.3d 354 (Pa.Cmwlth.2013). Consistent with Collegium Charter School, the Commonwealth Court examined the Remedies Clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution, which provides that individuals are entitled to receive a remedy by due course of law.
We granted allowance of appeal to determine whether the retroactive tax exemption provided in Section 1722-A(e)(3) is unconstitutional, and whether Appellant is entitled to a refund of taxes paid prior to the enactment of this Section. The constitutional validity of Section 1722-A(e)(3) presents a pure question of law and, as with any question of law, our review of the lower court‘s decision is plenary and de novo. Robinson Twp., Washington Cnty. v. Com., 83 A.3d 901, 943 (Pa.2013); West Mifflin Area Sch. Dist. v. Zahorchak, 607 Pa. 153, 4 A.3d 1042, 1048 (2010). “In our review, we are not constrained by the Commonwealth Court‘s reasoning and may affirm on any grounds, as long as the record supports the judgment.” Robinson Twp., 83 A.3d at 943.
Appellant argues that it plainly falls within the class of entities which are entitled to the retroactive tax exemption contained in Section 1722-A(e)(3) because it is an “associated nonprofit foundation” and, by virtue of its pre-enactment tax assessment appeal of 2007, it “filed an appeal from an assessment... prior to the effective date of this subsection.”
Turning to whether Section 1722-A(e)(3) violates the separation of powers doctrine, as argued by the School District and the Board and considered by the trial court, Appellant argues that it does not because it does not interfere with a final judgment obtained through litigation. Appellant considers the entry of the final judgment in Friends I to be irrelevant to the constitutionality of Section 1722-A(e)(3) because the final judgment of Friends I held nothing more than that Appellant was not entitled to an exemption as a purely public charity.
The Board, as appellee, and the School District, as intervenor, argue that Section 1722-A(e)(3) is unconstitutional for several reasons. First, they assert that the retroactive tax exemption violates the Remedies Clause because it would extinguish the taxing authorities’ vested rights in real estate taxes which they received in accord with a final judgment in their favor and against Appellant. Second, they rely on Commonwealth v. Sutley, 474 Pa. 256, 378 A.2d 780 (1977), to argue that a tax refund would violate the separation of powers doctrine, which bars the legislature from changing or interfering with final judgments of the courts. In this regard, they argue that to permit Appellant to obtain a refund of taxes paid following a judicial determination that the Property was taxable would leave all final judgments open to question.9
This does not end our analysis, however, as the Board and the School District have attacked the statute as unconstitutional, and the Commonwealth Court agreed. We observe that Section 1722-A(e)(3), like any legislative enactment, enjoys a presumption of constitutionality, and the School District and the Board bear a heavy burden to prove it unconstitutional. Ieropoli, 842 A.2d at 928. “A statute will only be declared unconstitutional if it clearly, palpably and plainly violates the constitution.” Id.; Erfer v. Commonwealth, 568 Pa. 128, 794 A.2d 325, 331 (2002) (citation omitted); see
Although the Board and the School District have attacked the constitutionality of the statute on three separate grounds, we find the argument premised on the separation of powers
As we explained in Sutley, the doctrine of the separation of governmental powers among the three coequal branches of government—legislative, executive, and judicial—has been inherent in the structure of our government since its inception. Sutley, 378 A.2d at 782-83; Commonwealth ex rel. Carroll v. Tate, 442 Pa. 45, 274 A.2d 193 (1971); Pennsylvania Company v. Scott, 346 Pa. 13, 29 A.2d 328 (1943); Wilson v. Philadelphia School District, 328 Pa. 225, 195 A. 90 (1937); Commonwealth v. Mathues, 210 Pa. 372, 59 A. 961 (1904); Dechastellux v. Fairchild, 15 Pa. 18 (1850); Greenough v. Greenough, 11 Pa. 489 (1849). Any encroachment upon one branch of government by another is offensive to the fundamental scheme envisioned by our founding fathers. Sutley, 378 A.2d at 783.
Paramount to the separation of powers doctrine, and to the protection of the judicial branch as a coequal, distinct, and independent branch of government, is the “recognition that final judgments of the judicial branch are not to be interfered with by legislative fiat in this Commonwealth.” Sutley, 378 A.2d at 783. Such respect for final judgments has long been established and is not open to serious question. Leahey v. Farrell, 362 Pa. 52, 66 A.2d 577 (1949) (reaffirming the proposition that a legislative attempt to alter the effect of final
The legislature cannot, by an act of assembly, overrule a judicial decision: Greenough v. Greenough, 11 Pa. 489; it may not direct a statute to be construed in a certain way: In re East Grant Street, 121 Pa. 596, 16 A. 366; Titusville Iron-Works v. Keystone Oil Co., 122 Pa. 627, 15 A. 917; it cannot grant a new trial: Dechastellux v. Fairchild, 15 Pa. 18; or order an illegitimate child to be regarded as legitimate under terms of prior deed: Appeal of Edwards, 108 Pa. 283; it may not change the effect of judgments or decrees previously rendered: Pennsylvania Company, etc., v. Scott, 346 Pa. 13, 29 A.2d 328.
We applied these principals in Sutley to invalidate retroactive legislation that impaired existing final legal judgments. In that case, the defendants were sentenced for felony possession of marijuana, and the General Assembly subsequently reclassified possession of marijuana as a misdemeanor and reduced the applicable penalties. Sutley, 378 A.2d at 781. A further
The same consequence results herein. Although the legislature possesses the power to enact substantive law, it may not affect judicial judgments and decrees already entered by subsequent legislative changes to the governing law. Sutley, 378 A.2d at 784. Following Appellant‘s 2007 tax assessment appeal, the trial court and the Commonwealth Court, in Friends I, determined under then-existing law that Appellant was not exempt from real estate taxation. The determination in Friends I was an inviolable final judgment of the judiciary that may not be usurped by the legislative process or reversed by legislative action. The taxing authorities rightfully relied on the final judgment to collect real estate taxes from Appellant
Section 1722-A(e)(3) was not in effect at the time the Commonwealth Court determined the taxable status of Appellant in Friends I. We therefore agree with the Board and the School District that permitting Appellant to open the final judgment of Friends I on the basis of subsequently enacted legislation would leave all final judgments open to question, fatally undermining judicial authority in violation of the separation of powers doctrine. As we have already held in Sutley, “[t]he vesting in the legislature of the power to alter final judgments would be repugnant to our concept of the separation of the three branches of government.” 378 A.2d at 782. By retroactively exempting the Property from real estate taxes when the final judgment of Friends I held the Property was taxable, Section 1722-A(e)(3) violates the separation of powers and is, therefore, unconstitutional.
In affirming the Commonwealth Court, we are not limited to the specific grounds invoked by that court and may affirm for any valid reason of record. See Scampone v.
Chief Justice CASTILLE and Justices McCAFFERY and STEVENS join the opinion.
Justice SAYLOR files a concurring opinion in which Justice TODD joins.
Justice EAKIN files a concurring opinion in which Chief Justice CASTILLE joins.
Justice SAYLOR, concurring.
I differ with the Commonwealth Court‘s approach of invalidating Section 1722-A(e)(3), on the ground that it violates Article I, Section 11 of the Constitution, i.e., the Remedies Clause. A statute may be invalidated only upon the demonstration by a challenger of a plain and palpable violation of the Constitution, see, e.g., W. Mifflin Area Sch. Dist. v. Zahorchak, 607 Pa. 153, 163, 4 A.3d 1042, 1048 (2010), but, as I read the Commonwealth Court‘s opinion, it reversed this burden.
In this regard, in attacking the constitutionality of Section 1722-A(e)(3), Appellee/Intervenor West Chester Area School District (the “District“) asserted that the Remedies Clause operated in favor of political subdivisions (such as school districts) to preclude the Legislature from retroactively adjusting paid past assessments. See Brief for Appellee in Friends of Pa. Leadership Charter Sch. v. Chester Cnty. Bd. of Assessment Appeals, 61 A.3d 354 (Pa.Cmwlth.2013), 2013 WL 5355461, at *5-6. The Commonwealth Court credited this proposition on the basis that Appellant (the non-challenging party) had failed to provide any authority or analysis to demonstrate that the Remedies Clause does not so operate.
I am also uncomfortable with the majority‘s holding that Section 1722-A(e)(3) undermines judicial authority and violates the separation of powers doctrine. Upon review of the seminal decision in Commonwealth v. Sutley, 474 Pa. 256, 378 A.2d 780 (1977) (invalidating provisions of a statutory scheme attempting to extend reduced sentences to persons convicted of certain drug offenses), I find the underlying sentiments to be more reflexive than reasoned. Indeed, my own line of thinking meshes with that of the dissenters, particularly Mr. Justice Roberts. See id. at 275-89, 378 A.2d at 790-97 (Roberts, J., dissenting); accord State v. Morris, 55 Ohio St.2d 101, 378 N.E.2d 708, 715-16 (1978) (holding that a retroactive drug sentencing scheme did not violate the separation of powers doctrine under the Ohio Constitution, with reference to the Sutley dissent); Adrian Vermeule, The Judicial Power in the State (and Federal) Courts, 2000 SUP. CT. REV. 357, 381-82 (2000) (positing that “[t]he Pennsylvania court‘s examination of [Sutley] through the lens of the judicial power, rather than the pardon power, was an error caused by its mistaken perception that fundamental prerogatives of the judiciary were at stake“).1
In any event, I believe this appeal may be resolved on a different ground, namely, based on the Uniformity Clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution, which requires that, “[a]ll taxes shall be uniform, upon the same class of subjects, within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax, and shall be levied and collected under general laws.”
comprehensive investigations and policy hearings. See Seebold v. Prison Health Servs., Inc., 618 Pa. 632, 653, 57 A.3d 1232, 1245 (2012). The upshot of Sutley, however, is that, so long as some final judgment in the judicial system is involved, and irrespective of the absence of any harm to vested individual entitlements, the General Assembly simply cannot bring such resources to bear to advance beneficial social policy aims. I have strong reservations concerning such an inflexible approach to separation of powers.
Considering such core uniformity principles, the exemption from real estate taxation embodied in Section 1722-A(e) manifests an immediately apparent difficulty, in that the statute does not facially track any exemption delineated in the Pennsylvania Constitution. Moreover, there are no terms of the Charter School Law (and certainly Appellant does not identify any such statutory provision) which require that the types of properties to which the exemption under Section 1722-A(e) is accorded (property owned by “any charter school, cyber charter school or an associated nonprofit foundation, or owned by a nonprofit corporation or nonprofit foundation and leased to” one of the above-enumerated entities,
The two constitutional exemptions which appear to have been put into play in this arena are: 1) public property regularly used for public purposes; and 2) property owned and regularly used by institutions of purely public charities. See
Given the framing of the arguments in the course of this litigation, as well as the questions presented for review here, the uniformity aspect of this appeal has been molded to focus more on retrospective application of the Section 1722-A(e)(3) exemption in the abstract, rather than upon the overarching question of whether a constitutional exemption is present in
Ultimately, however, I agree with the District that, even assuming that Appellant‘s property falls within a category of permissible exemptions under the Constitution, Section 1722-A(e)(3) creates an artificial distinction among such exempt properties by conditioning retroactive application upon the filing of an assessment appeal.
While acknowledging that taxation is not a matter of science and that perfect uniformity is not required under our Constitution, this Court has held that where there is no reasonable difference between the classes of taxpayers upon which different tax rates are imposed, the classification cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny. See Columbia Gas Transmission Corp. v. Com., 468 Pa. 145, 151, 360 A.2d 592, 595 (1976) (holding that an excise tax imposed at a higher rate on foreign corporations than on domestic corporations violated the Uniformity Clause, as there was no valid reason for the rate disparity based on the place of incorporation). Similarly, when there exists no legitimate basis for distinguishing between those taxpayers that are subject to a tax and those that are exempt, the taxing scheme results in unequal burdens on similarly situated entities in violation of the uniformity standard. See City of Harrisburg v. Sch. Dist. of City of Harrisburg, 551 Pa. 295, 306, 710 A.2d 49, 54 (1998) (concluding that a tax that distinguished between lessees of public and nonpublic property, in the absence of a “reasonable and just basis” for the distinction, violated the Uniformity Clause).
There is little dispute that the legislature may, within constitutional limitations, retroactively extend an exemption or impose a tax. See Commonwealth v. Budd Co., 379 Pa. 159, 172, 108 A.2d 563, 569 (1954) (determining “that a tax may not be retroactively applied beyond the year of the general legislative session immediately preceding that of its enactment” (emphasis in original)). However, a distinction between taxpayers predicated only upon the execution of some prior administrative action results in unequal tax burdens being
Significantly, this is not an instance where alike institutions bear substantially different tax burdens because one has exercised its rights to claim an exemption prospectively and the other has not. The present disparity exists because the General Assembly has created an exemption, in its retroactive application, limited to a specified subset of taxpayers based upon the filing of a prior appeal. Thus, those entities which filed an assessment appeal are rewarded with an exemption to which they were not otherwise entitled at the time of filing, while others must pay the tax.
This is a readily apparent uniformity violation.
Justice TODD joins this concurring opinion.
Justice EAKIN, concurring.
I agree with the majority‘s holding § 1722-A(e)(3) violates the separation of powers doctrine, but I also find meritorious West Chester Area School District‘s argument that § 1722-A(e)(3) violates the constitutional guarantee of uniform taxation, which the majority declined to address. See Majority Op., at 457 n. 9, 101 A.3d at 72 n. 9. Specifically, the School District argues § 1722-A(e)(3) violates the Uniformity Clause by treating identically situated property differently for taxation purposes and by excluding from the retroactive exemption those charter schools, cyber charter schools, and associated nonprofit foundations that failed to file an assessment appeal prior to the statute‘s effective date.
The Uniformity Clause provides, “All taxes shall be uniform, upon the same class of subjects, within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax, and shall be levied and collected
Here, § 1722-A provides for prospective and retrospective tax relief. Prospectively, § 1722-A(e)(1) exempts from real estate taxation: (1) property directly owned by a charter school, cyber charter school, or an associated nonprofit foundation; or (2) property owned by a nonprofit corporation or foundation that is leased to a charter school, cyber charter school, or an associated nonprofit foundation at or below fair market value.
By treating identically situated taxpayers differently for taxation purposes and excluding from the retrospective exemption entities that failed to or could not file an assessment appeal, § 1722-A results in classifications that are unreasonable and not rationally related to any legitimate state purpose. See Clifton, at 1211 (citation omitted). The provisions of § 1722-A impose unequal tax burdens and therefore violate the Uniformity Clause. See, e.g., id., at 1228-29 (holding inequitable assessments amongst similarly situated taxpayers violated Uniformity Clause); City of Harrisburg v. School District of the City of Harrisburg, 551 Pa. 295, 710 A.2d 49, 53-54 (1998) (holding unequal tax treatment of lessees of public and nonpublic property violated Uniformity Clause).
That said, I concur in affirming the Commonwealth Court because, as explained by the majority, § 1722-A(e)(3) also violates the separation of powers doctrine and is therefore unconstitutional.
Chief Justice CASTILLE joins this concurring opinion.