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REPORTED IN THE COURT OF SPECIAL APPEALS OF MARYLAND No. 2060 September Term, 2009

SUPERVISOR OF ASSESSMENTS OF BALTIMORE COUNTY v. GREATER BALTIMORE MEDICAL CENTER, INC.

Krauser, C.J., Woodward, Wright, JJ.

Opinion by Woodward, J.

Filed: December 1, 2011

The Supervisor of Assessments of Baltimore County ("the Supervisor"), appellant, challenges the Maryland Tax Court's ("Tax Court") determination that Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Inc. ("GBMC"), appellee, a non-profit hospital, was the owner of an office building and parking garage ("the Improvements") built on GBMC's land, thereby qualifying GBMC for a charitable property tax exemption. GBMC owned a tract of land that it leased to Baltimore Hospital Investors LLC ("BHI LLC"), a for-profit Delaware limited liability company, which was established to aid in financing the construction of the Improvements. BHI LLC then leased the same tract of land back to GBMC, with an agreement that GBMC, as agent for BHI LLC, would build the Improvements on the land and the lease would thereafter include the Improvements. After construction of the Improvements, an agent for GBMC and BHI LLC filed an application for a charitable tax exemption for the land and the Improvements with the Supervisor. The Property Tax Assessment Appeals Board ("Tax Appeals Board") ultimately denied the charitable tax exemption application. GBMC

appealed the denial to the Tax Court, which reversed the Tax Appeals Board's decision, and granted the charitable tax exemption, because GBMC was the "sole and exclusive owner of the [I]mprovements for Maryland real property tax purposes and for purposes of satisfying the ownership requirement under the charitable exemption statute." The Supervisor filed a petition for judicial review of the Tax Court's ruling in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County. The circuit court affirmed the Tax Court's ruling. On appeal, the Supervisor presents two questions for review by this Court, which we

have consolidated into one question:1 1. Did the Tax Court err in determining that GBMC, as a nonprofit hospital, was the owner of an office building and parking garage for real property tax purposes and thus satisfied the ownership requirement under the charitable exemption statute? 2

For the reasons set forth herein, we shall affirm the judgment of the circuit court, thereby upholding the decision of the Tax Court. BACKGROUND

1

The Supervisor originally presented the following questions to this Court: 1. Did the Maryland Tax Court [("Tax Court")] err in finding that a non-profit hospital owned an office building and parking garage for property tax purposes when the evidence demonstrated that a for-profit corporation actually owned the improvements and leased them back to the non-profit hospital? Did the [] Tax Court err in granting a charitable purposes tax exemption for an office building and parking garage owned by a for-profit LLC and for the land on which they were built, where the for-profit LLC leased the land from a non-profit hospital and leased the improvements back to the hospital?

2.

The Tax Court also held that, as the record owner of the land and the Improvements, GBMC was entitled to a charitable exemption to the extent that it satisfied the "use requirement" of the charitable exemption statute. See Md. Code (1985, 2007 Repl. Vol),

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