Opinion
No. 39860
Decided March 30, 1966.
Taxation — Hospital operated exclusively for charitable purposes — Office space in medical building rented to staff physicians — Commercial use, not exempt from taxation.
APPEAL from the Board of Tax Appeals.
The White Cross Hospital Association, a nonprofit charitable hospital incorporated under the laws of Ohio, filed with the Board of Tax Appeals an application for exemption from taxation of a portion of its medical building on land owned by the association and located near and connected with the hospital building. Exemption is claimed for that portion of the building which houses office space rented to approximately 60 of the hospital's key staff physicians. Exemption is not claimed for the portions of the building occupied by a barber shop, a beauty shop, an optician and a pharmacy.
The staff physicians and dentists who occupy leased offices in the subject building practice their professions in their office suites and personally charge their patients for such services. This building is owned and operated exclusively by the association in connection with the hospital and not with a view to profit. The record contains no evidence of any charitable activity being carried on in this building.
The Board of Tax Appeals denied the exemption.
An appeal as of right brings the cause to this court for review.
Messrs. Bricker, Evatt, Barton, Eckler Niehoff and Mr. William R. Chadeayne, for appellant. Mr. C. Howard Johnson, prosecuting attorney, and Mr. William W. Holmes, for appellee Arch J. Warren, county auditor.
Mr. William B. Saxbe, attorney general, Mr. Edgar L. Lindley and Mr. John F. Casey, for appellee Board of Tax Appeals.
The subject building is being used commercially. Cincinnati College v. State, 19 Ohio 110. The decision of the Board of Tax Appeals is affirmed on authority of Jewish Hospital Assn. of Cincinnati v. Board of Tax Appeals, 5 Ohio St.2d 179.
Decision affirmed.
TAFT, C.J., ZIMMERMAN, MATTHIAS, O'NEILL, HERBERT, SCHNEIDER and BROWN, JJ., concur.