Attorneys Samuel Clark, Ryan Gleason, and Kiley Verbanac recently secured the reversal of a nearly $100,000 property tax assessment that was imposed on a hospital after it had purchased and taken over operations of a 57-acre park in Indiana County, PA.
In May 2024, the hospital purchased the park from a non-profit foundation for nearly $4 million. Since the time of its establishment, the park was exempt from the assessment of real property taxes. In August 2024, however, the county’s assessment office notified the hospital that the park would lose its tax-exempt status starting in 2025. Based on the value of the property, the change in assessment would result in an annual tax liability of nearly $100,000 for the hospital.
After receiving notice of the assessment change, Attorneys Clark and Verbanac filed an appeal and application for exemption from taxation with the County’s Board of Assessment Appeals, arguing that the park was exempt from taxation under the Pennsylvania’s Constitution, the Purely Public Charity Act, and the Consolidated County Assessment Law. When the Board of Assessment Appeals failed to schedule a hearing for the appeal and exemption application, Attorneys Clark, Gleason, and Verbanac filed a complaint in the Court of Common Pleas seeking mandamus and injunctive relief against the taxing authorities, arguing that the County’s Board of Assessment Appeals had a clear legal duty under the Consolidated County Assessment Law to hold a hearing on all assessment appeals. Based on its clear right to relief under the law, Burns White’s attorneys also filed an Application for Peremptory Judgment to ensure that the hospital would receive a hearing on its appeal and application without delay.
Before a hearing could be held on the hospital’s complaint, however, the County’s Assessment Office changed course and reversed its prior determination, thus agreeing that the park was exempt from real property taxes under the Pennsylvania Constitution, the Purely Public Charity Act, and Consolidated County Assessment Law. As a result of the reversal, the park will again be exempt from the assessment of real property taxes.