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Michigan Supreme Court Lansing, Michigan

Opinion
WEXFORD MEDICAL GROUP, Petitioner-Appellant, v CITY OF CADILLAC, Respondent-Appellee. _______________________________ BEFORE THE ENTIRE BENCH CAVANAGH, J.

Chief Justice:

Justices:

Clifford W. Taylor

Michael F. Cavanagh Elizabeth A. Weaver Marilyn Kelly Maura D. Corrigan Robert P. Young, Jr. Stephen J. Markman

FILED MAY 4, 2006

No. 127152

This case calls on this Court to interpret certain provisions of the General Property Tax Act (GPTA), MCL 211.1 et seq. Specifically, we must decide whether the Tax Tribunal improperly denied petitioner's request to be exempt from ad valorem property taxes because of its claimed status as a charitable institution under MCL 211.7o and 211.9(a), and its claim that it serves a public health purpose as described in MCL 211.7r. Because there is no statutory

language that precludes finding petitioner exempt as a charitable institution, and because exempting petitioner on that basis fully comports with the reasoning of our previous cases, we hold that petitioner does in fact qualify for that exemption.

In refusing to grant the exemption, the Tax Tribunal adopted a wrong principle and misapplied the law by failing to distinguish ProMed Healthcare v City of Kalamazoo, 249 Mich App 490; 644 NW2d 47 (2002), and by focusing only on the amount of free medical services plaintiff provided. Instead, the tribunal should have considered plaintiff's unrestricted and open-access policy of providing free or below-cost care to all patients who requested it. Our finding in that regard makes it unnecessary to determine whether petitioner also exists for a public health purpose. As such, we reverse the part of the Court of Appeals judgment that held that petitioner was not a charitable institution and vacate the part of the judgment that held that petitioner did not exist for a public health purpose. The matter is remanded to the Tax Tribunal for entry of a judgment for the petitioner. I. BACKGROUND Petitioner Wexford Medical Group is a nonprofit corporation that provides health care in Wexford County, Michigan, which is a federally designated health professional shortage area. Petitioner does business as Great Lakes Family Care. Petitioner is a

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Michigan Law