J. Paul Getty Museum v. County of Los Angeles

The County of Los Angeles and the City of Los Angeles (County) appeal from a summary judgment entered in favor of respondent the J. Paul Getty Museum (Getty Museum). The judgment awarded the Getty Museum a refund of $180,351.05 in property tax for the 1973-1974 fiscal year.

This appeal involves the applicability of the “welfare exemption” from property tax (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 214) to the Getty Museum’s main building during the time of its construction. Specifically, we must decide whether a nonprofit owner of property intended for use as a museum is precluded from claiming the welfare exemption when the free museum exemption under article XIII, section 3, subdivision (d) of the California Constitution is not yet available. We resolve this issue in favor of the Getty Museum and further hold that it satisfied all of the conditions for claiming the welfare exemption to exempt its new building from taxation for the 1973-1974 fiscal year. Accordingly, we will affirm the judgment.

Facts

The Getty Museum is a nonprofit charitable trust, established by a trust indenture in 1953 by its founder J. Paul Getty. (See Ed. Code, § 21140 et seq.) The purpose of the trust is to…