265 Conn. 511 | Conn. | 2003
Lead Opinion
Opinion
The plaintiff, Greenwich Hospital, appeals from the summary judgment rendered by the trial court in favor of the defendant, Gene Gavin, the commissioner of revenue services. The defendant had denied the plaintiffs request for a refund of a portion of the gross earnings tax it had paid pursuant to General Statutes § 12-2631),
The trial court’s memorandum of decision sets forth the following relevant facts and procedural history. “[The plaintiff] is a nonprofit, charitable, nonstock corporation organized under the laws of the state of Connecticut, with its principal place of business located in Greenwich .... In 1994, the state . . . imposed a gross earnings tax ... on the ‘amount of a hospital’s total charges for all patient care services.’ General Statutes § 12-263a (2).
“Since 1994, [the plaintiff] calculated and paid the [gross earnings tax] based on the total charges for both the actual services and the tangible personal property used in rendering the [patient care] services. [The plaintiff] contends that it mistakenly included the tangible personal property charges in the charges for patient care services in its calculation of gross revenue.”
The trial court’s memorandum of decision further provided: “In March, 1999, [the plaintiff] filed with the [defendant] a request for a refund of a portion of the [gross earnings tax] it had paid for the period of January 1, 1996, to December 31, 1998. [The plaintiff] sought a refund for tax it claims it mistakenly paid on items of tangible personal property [used in rendering patient care services].
“[After the plaintiffs appeal was filed] [t]he legislature repealed the [gross earnings tax] for all quarterly periods commencing on or after April 1, 2000. Public Acts 2000, No. 00-170, § 9; [see] General Statutes (Rev. to 2001) § 12-263b. During the same session that the legislature discontinued the [gross earnings tax], the legislature clarified the [gross earnings tax] by enacting [P.A.] 00-174, [§ 68] which added a definition of ‘patient care services.’ General Statutes (Rev. to 2001) § 12-263[a] (8) provides: ‘ “Patient care services” means therapeutic and diagnostic medical services provided by the hospital to inpatients and outpatients, including tangible personal property transferred in connection with such services.’ Public Act 00-174 [§ 68] became effective May 26, 2000, and is applicable to all tax periods open on that date. [P.A.] 00-174, § 83.”
The plaintiff claims that P.A. 00-174 was not a clarification of the original enactment of §§ 12-263a and 12-263b, but, rather, was a substantive change in the law, and that P.A. 00-174 does not reflect a legitimate legislative intent to clarify the gross earnings tax. The defendant claims in response that P.A. 00-174 was a legislative clarification that properly was within the authority of the General Assembly. We agree with the defendant.
“We begin by setting forth the applicable standard of review. The standard of review of a trial court’s decision granting summary judgment is well established. Practice Book § 17-49 provides that summary judgment shall be rendered forthwith if the pleadings, affidavits and any other proof submitted show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. In deciding a motion for summary judgment, the trial court must view the evidence in the light most favorable
In the present case, the legislature has simplified our task of determining its intention in adopting P.A. GO-174 by incorporating into the text of the act an explicit statement of the legislature’s intention. As we previously noted, P.A. 00-174, § 70, provides that “[t]he intent of section 12-263a and subsection (29) of section 12-407 of the general statutes, as amended by sections 68 and 69 of this act, is to clarify that current law includes in the base of the hospital gross earnings tax sales of tangible personal property transferred in con
This court has a long tradition of embracing clarifying legislation. We most recently affirmed the applicability of legislative clarifications to pending litigation in Bhinder v. Sun Co., 263 Conn. 358, 373, 819 A.2d 822 (2003), where the legislature, in response to our decision in a wrongful death case permitting common-law apportionment of damages between a negligent defendant and a party who acted intentionally or recklessly, enacted a statute precluding apportionment between parties on any basis other than negligence. We reversed our original decision in Bhinder, see Bhinder v. Sun Co., 246 Conn. 223, 717 A.2d 202 (1998); after the relevant legislative clarification was adopted, stating: “[W]e have often held . . . that it is as much within the legislative power as the judicial power—subject, of course, to constitutional limits other than the separation of powers—for the legislature to declare what its intent was in enacting previous legislation. Connecticut National Bank v. Giacomi, [242 Conn. 17, 45, 699 A.2d 101 (1997)]. Implicit in our decisions allowing the legislature to clarify its intent in prior legislation was the recognition that pending cases, even those that eventually spawned the clarifying legislation, could be affected. Id., 45-46. Our decision in State v. Magnano, [204 Conn. 259, 273, 528 A.2d 760 (1987)], is particularly illustrative in this regard.
We also recently affirmed the application of clarifying legislation to pending litigation in Oxford Tire Supply, Inc. v. Commissioner of Revenue Services, 253 Conn. 683, 755 A.2d 850 (2000). In that case, the legislature had clarified a tax statute during the pendency of an appeal from a trial court judgment. Id., 689. We concluded therein that “[a]s [the plaintiff taxpayer] concedes, [Public Acts 1999, No.] 99-225, § 30, was enacted
In another recent tax case, Andersen Consulting, LLP v. Gavin, 255 Conn. 498, 517, 767 A.2d 692 (2001), we reiterated the test for determining the effect of new legislation on pending litigation. The plaintiff m. Andersen Consulting, LLP, like the plaintiff in the present case, had sought a refund for a portion of taxes it had paid. Id., 509. After the defendant commissioner of revenue services had denied most of the plaintiffs claimed refund, the plaintiff appealed to the trial court, which sustained the plaintiffs appeal and ordered the payment of a refund. Id., 509-11. We reversed the trial court’s judgment because a public act clarifying the applicable tax statute had been passed by the legislature during the pendency of the appeal from the trial court ruling. Id., 513-14. We concluded that “[i]n determining the intended effect of a later enactment on earlier legislation, two questions must be asked. First, was the act intended to clarify existing law or to change it? Second, if the act was intended to make a change, was the change intended to operate retroactively?” (Emphasis in original; internal quotation marks omitted.) Id., 517.
In the present case, the intent of the legislature in enacting P.A. 00-174 was manifested in the terms of the legislation itself, which provided specifically that the intent of the act was clarification. P.A. 00-174, § 70. Although the plaintiff urges us to conclude that the legislative intent in adopting P.A. 00-174 was not “legiti-
The plaintiff acknowledges that this court has deferred to legislative clarifications since 1930. It nevertheless encourages us to alter our long-standing
The judgment is affirmed.
In this opinion NORCOTT, KATZ and PALMER, Js., concurred.
General Statutes § 12-2631) provides: “There is hereby imposed on the hospital gross earnings of each hospital in this state a tax (1) at the rate of eleven per cent of its hospital gross earnings in each taxable quarter for taxable quarters commencing prior to October 1, 1996; (2) at the rate of nine and one-fourth per cent of its hospital gross earnings in each taxable quarter commencing on or after October 1, 1996, and prior to October 1, 1997; (3) at the rate of eight and one-fourth per cent of its hospital gross earnings in each taxable quarter commencing on or after October 1, 1997, and prior to October 1, 1998; (4) at the rate of seven and one-fourth per cent of its hospital gross earnings in each taxable quarter commencing on or after October 1, 1998, and prior to October 1, 1999; and (5) at the rate of four and one-half per cent of its hospital gross earnings in each taxable quarter commencing on or after October 1, 1999, and prior to April 1, 2000. The hospital gross earnings of each hospital in this state shall not be subject to the provisions of this chapter with respect to calendar quarters commencing on or after April 1, 2000. Each hospital shall, on or before the last day of January, April, July and October of each year, render to the Commissioner of Revenue Services a return, on forms prescribed or furnished by the Commissioner of Revenue Services and signed by one of its principal officers, stating specifically the name and location of such hospital, and the amounts of its hospital gross earnings, its net revenue and its gross revenue for the calendar quarter ending the last day of the preceding month. Payment shall be made with such return.”
The plaintiffs request for a refund was for taxes paid from 1996 through 1998. We are aware that the taxation rate set forth in § 12-263b has varied since that time, however, those rates and other technical changes to the statute are not at issue in this appeal. Accordingly, for purposes of clarity, references herein are to the current revision of § 12-263b.
General Statutes § 12-263a (2) provides: “ ‘Gross revenue’ means the amount of a hospital’s total charges for all patient care services minus any refunds resulting from errors or overcharges . . . .” Section 12-263b imposes the gross earnings tax on a hospital’s “gross earnings,” which are defined in § 12-263a (7) as the hospital’s “net revenue” minus certain projected amounts. “Net revenue” is derived from “gross revenue.” General Statutes § 12-263a (6).
While several technical changes have been made to § 12-263a since its enactment in 1994, subsections (2), (6) and (7) have remained unchanged. References herein are to the current revision of the statute.
Section 12-263b, the gross earnings statute, was enacted by the General Assembly as an emergency certified bill in response to the decision in New England Health Care Employees Union District 1199, SEIU AFL-CIO v. Mount Sinai Hospital, 846 F. Sup. 190, 195-200 (D. Conn. 1994), rev’d, 65 F.3d 1024 (2d Cir. 1995), where the court ruled that a state statute, which allowed hospitals to impose a surcharge on the bill of privately insured patients to be used to subsidize the hospitals for uncompensated or under-compensated care they had provided, was preempted by a federal statute. See Public Acts 1994, No. 94-9, § 22; see also 37 S. Proc., Pt. 2, 1994 Sess., pp. 639-40.
Tangible personal property charges are charges for items such as room service, initial evaluations, therapy, drugs, medical supplies and anesthesia.
General Statutes § 12-263e provides: “The provisions of sections 12-550 to 12-554, inclusive, and section 12-555a shall apply to the provisions of sections 12-263a to 12-263e, inclusive, in the same manner and with the same force and effect as if the language of said sections 12-550 to 12-554, inclusive, and said section 12-555a had been incorporated in full into sections 12-263a to 12-263e, inclusive, and had expressly referred to the tax under said sections, except to the extent that any provision is inconsistent with a provision in said sections 12-263a to 12-263e, inclusive.”
General Statutes § 12-554 provides: “Any taxpayer aggrieved because of any order, decision, determination or disallowance of the Commissioner of
A minor technical change was made to § 12-554 in 1999, however, we refer herein to the current revision of the statute.
Count two of the amended complaint alleged that the legislature made substantive changes to the gross earnings tax when it enacted P.A. 00-174 and thus, P.A. 00-174 should not be applied retroactively. Count three of the amended complaint alleged that the enactment of P.A. 00-174 violated, inter alia, the doctrine of separation of powers.
The plaintiff also asserts that the gross earnings tax statute, as originally enacted, clearly and unambiguously excluded charges for tangible personal property. We do not address this claim because we conclude that P.A. 00-174 is dispositive of this appeal. The plaintiff further claims that the claimed retroactivity of P.A. 00-174 violated the plaintiffs federal due process rights. The plaintiff addressed this claim of a federal constitutional violation in one short paragraph of its brief to this court. This claim, therefore, was
The plainti ff also contended in its brief that the plain meaning rule should be applied in the present case. We do not address this claim because we recently have rejected the plain meaning rule in State v. Courchesne, 262 Conn. 537, 577-78, 816 A.2d 562 (2003). After the release of our decision in Courchesne, the plaintiff filed a motion for reargument and for supplemental briefing to revise its reliance on the plain meaning rule. We denied the plaintiff’s motion, however, because the plaintiff had provided a thorough statutory interpretation analysis in its brief regardless of any reliance on the plain meaning rule.
The plaintiff also claims that the rule of lenity must be applied to P.A. 00-174, § 68 (8), and that any ambiguities in a statute that imposes a tax must be resolved by strictly construing the statute in favor of the taxpayer. See Altray Co. v. Groppo, 224 Conn. 426, 432, 619 A.2d 443 (1993); Texaco, Inc. v. Groppo, 215 Conn. 134, 137, 574 A.2d 1293 (1990). The rule of lenity is not applicable in the present case, however, because we are not required to construe P.A. 00-174, § 68 (8), in order to resolve this appeal. Instead, we construed P.A. 00-174, § 70, which provided the intent of the legislature but did not impose a tax.
Representative Belden stated: “We clarify [with this bill] the definition of patient care services and computer data processing services.” 43 H.R. Proc., Pt. 19, 2000 Sess., p. 6187. Senator Looney stated: “There is a section of the bill that clarifies the definition of patient care services and computer data, processing to preclude a potential revenue loss.” 43 S. Proc., Pt. 8, 2000 Sess., p. 2561.
Concurrence Opinion
concurring. I agree with the majority’s conclusion in this case but write separately to reaffirm my continuing belief in the plain meaning rule as expressed in my dissenting opinion in State v. Courchesne, 262 Conn. 537, 597, 618-19, 816 A.2d 562 (2003) (Zarella, J., dissenting). I also agree with the majority’s decision not to address the plaintiff’s claim that the retroactive application of Public Acts 2000, No. 00-174, violated its federal due process rights because that claim was inadequately briefed. I would note, however, that, even if we were to reach the plaintiff’s due process claim, the result in this case would be the same in light of United States v. Carlton, 512 U.S. 26, 31, 35, 114 S. Ct. 2018, 129 L. Ed. 2d 22 (1994), in which the United