Noll v. Comptroller of the Treasury

SinglEy, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The appellants, Janet Noll and her associates, are the operators of a 12 story office building located at 7735 Old Georgetown .Road, in Bethesda, Maryland, which has 110,000 square feet of rentable space. The other appellants, Oscar D. Nohowel and his associates, are the operators of Triangle Towers, a 260 unit apartment building, also located in Bethesda. Attached to the office building is an unattended 150 car garage.

A 275 car garage is a part of Triangle Towers. In 1966 the State License Bureau, relying on Maryland Code (1957, 1968 Repl. Vol.) Art. 56 § 160 required the office building to obtain a garage license at an annual cost of $350.00 and accounting from 1 January 1967, required Triangle Towers to obtain a similar license at a cost of $450.00. Claims for refund, filed for the office building and Triangle Towers, were denied by the License Bureau.

The operators of the two properties appealed to the Maryland Tax Court, as permitted by Code (1957, 1965 Repl. Vol.) Art. 81 § 217, where the denial of the refund was affirmed. They then appealed to the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, where the two cases were consolidated for trial. From a circuit court order denying them relief, this appeal was taken.

Code, Art. 56 § 160, under which the License Bureau acted, provides in part: “(a) Schedule of fees.—No person, firm, company or corporation, resident or nonresident in this State shall keep a garage for the hire, storage or sale of automobiles until they shall first have obtained a license ²⁷² therefor, and shall pay an annual license fee based upon the square foot area of each floor for each garage, viz.: Garage containing not more than 2,000 square feet ................................. $ 20.00 Those containing more than 2,000 square feet, and not more than 3,000 square feet..... 40.00 Those containing more than 3,000 square feet, and not more than 5,000 square feet...... 75.00 Those containing more than 5,000 square feet, and not more than 7,500 square feet...... 125.00 Those containing more than 7,500 square feet, and not more than 10,000 square feet .... 200.00 For every additional 5,000 square feet or fractional part thereof the sum of $50.00 additional. “(b) ‘Garage’ defined.—A garage, as used within the terms of this section shall mean a place of storage for hire or a place where is kept for hire any automobile, locomobile, or any vehicle of any kind the motive power of which shall be electricity, steam, gas, gasoline or any other motive power except animals and aircraft, whether such automobile, locomobile or vehicle is kept therein permanently or temporarily, but whenever such garage has included within the building a machine shop, which machine shop is definitely defined by permanent partitions in the building, the space occupied by the same shall be exempted from taxation under this section.” As first enacted by Ch. 704 of the Laws of 1916, there was no exemption for that part of a garage which might be used as a machine shop. This exemption, contained in the last phrase of § 160 (b), was added by Ch. 294 of the Laws of 1920. Ch. 535 of the Laws of 1931 brought open air garages