RYE BROOK, N.Y., March 22, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Over thirty years ago, the District of Columbia enacted a law, D.C. Code § 47-2005(3), that prevents semipublic institutions (principally, nonprofit scientific, educational and charitable organizations) who do not have an office in the District from obtaining a hotel and sales tax exemption. In 2017, two non-resident semipublic institutions (the American Philosophical Association and American Anthropological Association) commenced a lawsuit in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia seeking to have this residency requirement be found to violate the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. That Clause prohibits a State, including the District, from discriminating against out-of-State entities when they participate in the State’s economy. No other State imposes a residency requirement on semipublic institutions for such tax exemptions.
The Court has certified the case as a class action on behalf of:
All semipublic institutions that do not have offices within the District that paid a sales or hotel tax to any of certain specified hotels in connection with any meetings held at any such hotels for the purpose for which the institution was organized or for honoring the institution or its members from December 12, 2016, and continuing until there is a final determination that the requirement under D.C. Code § 47-2005(3)(C) that a semipublic institution must reside in the District in order to obtain an exemption from sales and hotel taxes violates the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution.
Plaintiffs have filed a motion for the Court to address the Constitutional issue and when the briefing is complete on Plaintiffs’ motion over the next two months, this issue will be ripe for the Court to determine whether this law is unconstitutional.
This lawsuit is American Philosophical Association et al. v. District of Columbia, Civil Case No. 2019 CVT 000003. According to Jeffrey Klafter, the principal lawyer prosecuting this case, “We look forward to the Court’s determination of this issue, which we expect will allow the semipublic institutions in the Class to recover the taxes they were unlawfully required to pay.”
More information concerning this lawsuit is available at www.klafterlesser.com/news. You can also contact us from that website or you can call us at 914/934-9200 x 315.
Klafter Lesser LLP has extensive experience in prosecuting class actions and the founding partners of the firm, who have extensive class action experience, have recovered over $1 billion for the benefit of classes in numerous cases. Please visit our website for more information about the Firm.
Contact:
Jeffrey Klafter
KLAFTER LESSER LLP
2 International Drive, Suite 350
Rye Brook, NY 10573
(914) 934-9200
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