Montclair Gay Couple Sues for Property Tax Exemption

September 23, 2004

MONTCLAIR — A Montclair gay couple is challenging the limits of the state's Domestic Partnership Act by appealing their property taxes to the New Jersey State Tax Court this week.

Montclair residents Louis Paul Hennefeld and Blair O'Dell registered as domestic partners with the state on July 12, 2004. Previously, they were married in Ontario, Canada, in 2003, and certified as a civil union in Vermont in 2000.

Together, they have owned a home at 512 Park St. since 1985, and they are now seeking the same rights that they say would be afforded to a heterosexual couple in the same situation.

Hennefeld is a retired staff sergeant of the U.S. Air Force, and a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars. His wartime service left Hennefeld completely disabled, as was determined by the Veterans Administration, and he is, therefore, entitled to a 100 percent exemption from property taxes.

If he were married in what you might refer to as a traditional marriage, he and his wife in owning the property would be entitled to a 100 percent exemption, said Richard Norris, of Norris, McLaughlin & Marcus, a Bridgewater law firm representing the couple.

However, when Hennefeld and O'Dell filed an application for the exemption with the Montclair Tax Assessor's Office last January, they were denied.

It's a matter of basic civil rights, Norris said. It's clearly a discriminatory situation whereby they are being treated differently from other married people.

Montclair Tax Assessor Joan Kozeniesky said that Hennefeld and O'Dell are not recognized as a married couple by the state Division of Taxation.

Norris said that they should be at least given the same rights as married heterosexual couples.

The Domestic Partnership statute ... we content should be treated the same way as a traditional marriage ought to be treated, Norris said. [A]lso, they are married. They were married in Canada, and it's a marriage that should be recognized.

Aside from the biographical details, Hennefeld and O'Dell's case is working its way through the system like any other tax appeal.

Dissatisfied with the township tax assessor, the couple appealed to the Essex County Tax Board last June.

Since the county tax board also didn't grant the 100 percent exemption to the couple, their case is going to the state tax court this week.

No matter how it turns out in tax court, we will attempt to clarify this in the law, said Assemblywoman Loretta Weinberg, D-37, one of the primary sponsors of the Domestic Partnership Act.

Weinberg said that she was very familiar with Hennefeld and O'Dell's case, which she said was one of the loopholes in the Domestic Partnership Act she hopes will be corrected through amendments which are currently being drafted.

Kozeniesky indicated on the Notice of Disallowance of Claim sent to Hennefeld that their request was denied on the basis that Hennefeld was not the sole owner of the property.

On Nov. 20, 1985, then-Tax Assessor Jean R. Carodonna granted a partial tax exemption for the couple on the basis that Hennefeld had 100 percent of half ownership. Since then, the couple paid half of the taxes on the property.

One way the couple could received a 100 percent tax exemption would be to put their property solely in Hennefeld's name.

The problem is ... that there are just very punishing inheritance taxes when you are an unrelated couple, said O'Dell. The taxes on it would be just extraordinary.

But Fernando Pinguelo, another attorney working on the couple's behalf, sees the matter in terms larger than a tax deduction.

It's quite unfortunate, Pinguelo said, when you have a person who served his country during two wars [and] is now faced with a situation where he can't be part of a right or an enactment because of his sexual orientation.