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[[underline]]Report on Litigation[[/underline]]

Mr. Ripley reported on the status of litigation on certain issues as follows:

1. [[underline]]Expeditions Unlimited Aquatic Enterprises, Inc.[[/underline]] v. [[underline]]Smithsonian Institution[[/underline]].

In this libel action, summary judgment was granted in favor of the Smithsonian in January 1972.  A procedural question (concerning expiration of the time for appeal) was decided by the U. S. Court of Appeals in June 1974.  The plaintiff now has appealed the initial 1972 decision in favor of the Smithsonian.  A responding brief now is due in the Court of Appeals from the U. S. Attorney.

2. [[underline]]Real Estate Taxes in Cambridge, Massachusetts[[/underline]].

The Smithsonian Institution (for the Astrophysical Observatory) is a tenant of Harvard University in two buildings on Garden Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  Under the lease, the real estate taxes on these buildings are included in the rental payments.  Massachusetts law exempts from taxation real property owned by a charitable corporation and occupied by another charitable corporation, [[underline]]provided[[/underline]] both are incorporated in Massachusetts.  Local counsel, Choate, Hall and Steward of Boston, advises that the reliance on this limitation by the City of Cambridge in denying Smithsonian's application for abatement of the current tax may be an unconstitutional denial of the equal protection of the laws, and that a petition for a declaratory judgment of tax exemption might well be granted by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.

Subject to further discussion of the matter with local counsel and the Department of Justice, it is proposed to institute this litigation prior to February 18, 1975, the date on which the time for filing for refund of current taxes will expire.  The amount of tax involved, for the current Fiscal Year, is $155,225.81.