Russell Petroleum, Inc. v. City of Wetumpka
Russell Petroleum, Inc. v. City of Wetumpka
Opinion
Russell Petroleum, Inc., appeals a judgment by the Elmore Circuit Court holding (1) that property on which Russell Petroleum operated a gasoline service station was validly annexed into the municipal limits of the City of Wetumpka ("the City"), pursuant to Act No.
On the effective date of the annexation, the City had in effect business-licensing, municipal-gasoline-tax, and municipal-sales-tax regulations. Russell Petroleum did not apply for, or secure, a business license after the annexation. On August 6, 2002, the City sued Russell Petroleum to collect (1) unpaid business-license fees related to the operation of the business during the calendar years 2001 and 2002, and (2) gasoline taxes that Russell Petroleum did not remit to the City on retail sales of gasoline by the business.2
Russell Petroleum denied that it was required to purchase a business license from the City or to remit any gasoline taxes. Russell Petroleum asserted in its answer to the City's complaint that it owed no obligations to the City because, it argued, the annexation of the property on which the business is located was invalid. Russell Petroleum also filed a counterclaim asking the trial court to declare the Act unconstitutional and invalid. Among other claims, Russell Petroleum alleged in its counterclaim that the Act was invalid because, *Page 430
it argues, its proponents failed to comply with the requirement in §
In October 2002 the City moved the trial court to dismiss the counterclaim and order Russell Petroleum to pay the contested business-license fees and gasoline taxes. Stating that there appeared to be disputed facts concerning the City's compliance with the Alabama Constitution or certain statutes in annexing the property into the municipal limits, the trial court denied that motion and set the City's action for a bench trial on September 23, 2003. Before trial, Russell Petroleum filed an amended answer contesting the City's right to collect taxes for the period in which the business was within the police jurisdiction of the City pursuant to municipal ordinance, but outside the municipal limits. When the trial commenced, the City relinquished its claim against Russell Petroleum for unpaid taxes during that period in which Russell Petroleum was operating in the police jurisdiction, and Russell Petroleum agreed not to challenge the ordinance that brought the business within the police jurisdiction. Consequently, the issues considered at trial were limited to (1) the City's claim for unpaid business-license fees and gasoline taxes in the period after the property on which the business is located was annexed into the municipal limits of the City in 2001, and (2) Russell Petroleum's claims challenging the constitutionality and validity of the Act.
At the September bench trial the court heard oral testimony and received evidence concerning the enactment of the Act; the subjects addressed included the notices of intent to introduce the Act that were published in the Wetumpka Herald, actions taken in the legislature relating to the passage of the bill that became the Act, and the use of a map prepared by the City that detailed the property to be annexed. Rejecting Russell Petroleum's challenge to the Act, the trial court entered an order on October 1, 2003, which stated:
"This Court finds that the passage of [the Act] was proper and constitutionally valid. This Court thereby denies [Russell Petroleum's] counterclaim. [Russell Petroleum's] property is included on the property annexed by [the Act]. Therefore, [Russell Petroleum] is responsible for payment of appreciable business license fees as well as collection and payment of appreciable taxes. . . .
"The parties are hereby ordered to work together to have an audit performed to determine the exact amount of business license fees and taxes due to the City of Wetumpka in accordance with this order. This Court reserves jurisdiction to enter further orders to assure compliance with this order."
Following that order, however, the parties were unable to resolve their dispute concerning the amounts allegedly owed by Russell Petroleum. Evidence indicated that the $36,534.68 amount that Russell Petroleum had paid into court related to its collection of sales taxes on retail purchases, not to business-license fees or gasoline taxes as it initially pleaded. By March 2004, Russell Petroleum was contesting *Page 431 the City's right to collect sales taxes on retail transactions. Notwithstanding that dispute, by that time Russell Petroleum had collected approximately $78,000 in sales taxes after 2002.
In an effort to end the litigation, the City in June 2004 filed a motion for a summary judgment on all remaining issues. In support of that motion, the City presented evidence indicating that Russell Petroleum owed it the following sums for the period from January 1, 2002, through February 29, 2004:
1. $11,370.75 ($9,096.60 plus $2,274.15 in penalties) in business-license fees for the years 2002, 2003, and 2004;
2. $62,783.51 ($52,319.59 plus $10,463.92 in penalties) in municipal gasoline taxes; and
3. $90,274 ($78,249.82 plus $12,024.18 in penalties) in sales taxes.
On August 16, 2004, the trial court granted the City's summary-judgment motion and issued its second order regarding Russell Petroleum's obligations. In entering a final judgment for the City, the trial court found that "[s]ales taxes were placed at issue in this case" and that Russell Petroleum owed the City "the amount of $164,428.26 for license fees, gas taxes, sales taxes, and penalties for the period from January 1, 2002, to February 29, 2004. . . ." The trial court also ordered that the funds Russell Petroleum had paid into court be credited against its $164,428.26 liability and that it pay all gasoline taxes and sales taxes for the months March through July 2004 or be restrained from operating the business. Russell Petroleum timely filed this appeal following the trial court's denial of its postjudgment motion to alter, amend, or vacate the final judgment.
Robinson v. Evans,"`"When a judge in a nonjury case hears oral testimony, a judgment based on findings of fact based on that testimony will be presumed correct and will not be disturbed on appeal except for a plain and palpable error."' . . .
"`"The ore tenus rule is grounded upon the principle that when the trial court hears oral testimony, it has an opportunity to evaluate the demeanor and credibility of witnesses." . . . The rule applies to "disputed issues of fact," whether the dispute is based entirely upon oral testimony or upon a combination of oral testimony and documentary evidence. . . .
"`". . . [T]his Court will not disturb the trial court's conclusion unless it is clearly erroneous and against the great weight of the evidence. . . ."'
". . . However, `that presumption [of correctness] has no application when the trial court is shown to have improperly applied the law to the facts.' . . ."
*Page 432 Transamerica Commercial Fin. Corp. v. AmSouth Bank,N.A.,"this Court will assume that the trial judge made those findings necessary to support the judgment. . . . Under the ore tenus rule, the trial court's judgment and all implicit findings necessary to support it carry a presumption of correctness and will not be reversed unless `found to be plainly and palpably wrong.'
. . . `The trial court's judgment in such a case will be affirmed, if, under any reasonable aspect of the testimony, there is credible evidence to support the judgment.'"
The well-established standard of review for a summary judgment applies to the trial court's August 16, 2004, order granting the City's June 2004 summary-judgment motion. That standard was stated in Prince v. Poole,
"`This Court's review of a summary judgment is de novo. We apply the same standard of review as the trial court applied. Specifically, we must determine whether the movant has made a prima facie showing that no genuine issue of material fact exists and that the movant is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. Rule 56(c), Ala.R.Civ.P. In making such a determination, we must review the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmovant. Once the movant makes a prima facie showing that there is no genuine issue of material fact, the burden then shifts to the nonmovant to produce "substantial evidence" as to the existence of a genuine issue of material fact. Ala. Code 1975, §
12-21-12 . "[S]ubstantial evidence is evidence of such weight and quality that fair-minded persons in the exercise of impartial judgment can reasonably infer the existence of the fact sought to be proved."'"
(Citations omitted.) Further, when reviewing a summary judgment, this Court resolves all reasonable doubts against the movant.Prowell v. Children's Hosp. of Alabama,
"(a) Any bill introduced in the legislature which attempts to annex territory to a municipality . . . shall contain an accurate description of the territory proposed to be annexed to . . . such municipality together with a plat or map of such territory attached. . . . Copies of such map shall also be furnished to the judge of probate for the county . . . where the territory proposed to be annexed to . . . the municipality is located
"(b) The publication of notice of intention to apply for any local law annexing territory to any municipality . . . shall . . . state that a map showing what territory is to be annexed to . . . such municipality is on file in the office of the judge of probate in the county . . . wherein such territory is located and that such map is open to the inspection of the public."
§
On appeal, Russell Petroleum argues that the map contemplated in §
The trial court received the following evidence concerning the issue of compliance with the notice requirement and with §
After the city clerk left the map and the notice in the probate judge's office, the chief probate clerk was unsure what to do with them. Initially, she gave the map and the notice to the probate judge and sought his advice on how to maintain them; the probate judge subsequently returned them to her. The chief probate clerk also asked her fellow employees in the probate office whether the map and the notice should be recorded as a formal proceeding or indexed. Deciding against those options, the chief probate clerk on or about May 2, 2001, placed the map and the notice in a file folder and stored that file folder on a corner of her desk. The creation of that folder was the first "recordation" by the probate office that the map had been received in that office. The chief probate clerk, her assistant, and the probate judge knew about the folder containing the notice and the map, but not all members of the probate office staff were aware of the existence of the folder containing the map and the notice. The evidence also indicated that one visitor to the Elmore County probate office requested to see the map and reviewed it. Subsequently, in December 2001 the chief probate clerk indexed *Page 434 the map in the probate records of the Elmore County probate office.
Drawing all reasonable inferences in support of the trial court's findings of fact, we conclude that there was substantial evidence from which the trial court could have found that the map was furnished to the Elmore County probate office by the city clerk on or before March 1, 2001 — the first date of the public-notice period and over one month before the bill that became the Act was introduced in the legislature.5
Accordingly, the trial court did not err when it found that the City satisfied the timeliness component of §
The City argues that, having made this finding, we need not inquire further. According to the City, all that §
To comply with the requirements concerning the boundary-change map in §
We have not found, nor have we been directed to, any decisions addressing what actions a probate office must undertake before a boundary-change map is open to inspection within the meaning of §
We disagree with Russell Petroleum's argument that the annexation map was not open to inspection during the public-notice period for the Act. Effectively, Russell Petroleum asks that we engraft language onto §
Under this interpretation of the "on file" language in §
A brief overview of the facts related to the sales-tax award is necessary. In its complaint the City sought to collect only municipal business-license fees and gasoline taxes. Although Russell Petroleum claimed that the collection of those taxes was illegal, it interpleaded $36,534.68 into court; Russell Petroleum alleged in its counterclaim that those moneys constituted "license fees and gasoline taxes." Russell Petroleum further alleged that, because the annexation was invalid and it did not have records indicating the identities of its customers, the trial court should order a cy pres refund of the funds it had paid into court.
As noted above, the trial court received evidence indicating (1) that the funds paid into court were municipal sales taxes that Russell Petroleum had collected from its retail customers, and (2) that Russell Petroleum had collected over $78,000 in those taxes after 2001. Given these circumstances, the trial court effectively conformed the pleadings to the evidence when it found that "sales taxes were placed in dispute in this case." Moreover, when it entered a judgment for the City, it ordered Russell Petroleum to remit all three types of contested funds — business-license fees, gasoline taxes, and sales taxes.
Unquestionably, the evidence and developments below supported the trial court's finding that Russell Petroleum interjected the sales-tax dispute into consideration. Notwithstanding, we agree with Russell Petroleum that the trial court did not have authority to order it to pay sales taxes.
In 1992 the legislature enacted the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights and Uniform Revenue Procedures Act, Ala. Code 1975, §
Initially, the administrative requirements of the TBOR were directed only to the activities of the Department. However, the legislature subsequently passed the Local Tax Simplification Act of 1998, Act No.
"The Legislature finds and declares that the enactment by this state of a simplified system of local sales, use, rental, and lodgings taxes which may be levied by or for the benefit of municipalities and counties in Alabama effectuates desirable public policy by promoting understanding of and compliance with applicable local tax laws. . . ."
Section 3 amended, among other sections, §
"§
11-51-201 "(a) All taxes levied or assessed by any municipality pursuant to the provisions of Section
11-51-200 shall be subject to all definitions, exceptions, exemptions, proceedings, requirements, *Page 437 provisions, rules and regulations promulgated under the Alabama Administrative Procedure Act, direct pay permit and drive-out certificate procedures, statutes of limitation, penalties, fines, punishments, and deductions for the corresponding state tax as are provided by Sections40-2A-7 ,40-23-1 ,40-23-2 ,40-23-2.1 ,40-23-4 to40-23-31 , inclusive,40-23-36 ,40-23-37 , except for those provisions relating to the tax rate, and40-23-38 , except where inapplicable or where otherwise provided in this article."
Upon enactment of the LTSA, both §
Considering the TBOR (including a 1998 amendment thereto now codified at §
"[The LTSA] made the TBOR equally applicable to tax assessments and tax-collection procedures by local taxing authorities such as [municipalities and counties]. . . .". . . .
". . . The statutes amended by the LTSA clearly adopt the administrative rules and regulations promulgated by the Department to implement the TBOR, thus making municipalities and counties subject to the statutory mandates applicable to both taxing authorities and taxpayers alike when enforcing the State's tax laws."
Here the City did not use the administrative procedures mandated by the TBOR when collecting its sales taxes.6 It did not provide Russell Petroleum notice of a preliminary or final assessment of sales taxes, and there was no administrative consideration of the dispute concerning that alleged deficiency. Instead, the City's initial attempt to collect sales taxes from Russell Petroleum occurred in the Elmore Circuit Court.
We recently were confronted with an analogous situation inCity of Red Bay, supra. There the municipality filed an action in the circuit court to collect sales and/or rental taxes on vehicles leased by the defendant; the administrative procedures envisioned by the TBOR were not invoked before that action was filed.
"The [Patterson] Court held that compliance with the TBOR is the exclusive means for obtaining a franchise-tax refund, and explicitly stated that `[t]he TBOR is jurisdictional on its face. See § 40-2A-7(c)(5)c; §*Page 43840-2A-9 (g)(1).'835 So.2d at 153 . See also State v. Amerada Hess Corp.,788 So.2d 179 (Ala.Civ.App. 2000), in which the Court of Civil Appeals dismissed an action by the Department to recover severance taxes on the basis that the trial court lacked jurisdiction over the action because the Department had failed to follow the TBOR.
"Because the failure of the City and the County to comply with the provisions of the TBOR before filing their complaint deprived the trial court of jurisdiction, we vacate the class-certification order and remand the cause for the trial court to enter an order of dismissal."
The City of Red Bay decision is controlling authority. As in that case, the circuit court here did not have subject-matter jurisdiction to adjudicate the sales-tax issue because the City litigated that dispute without availing itself of the administrative procedures in the TBOR, which the LTSA made applicable to the assessment of local sales, use, rental, and lodgings taxes.7 In so holding, we reject the City's argument that, because Russell Petroleum paid $36,534.68 in sales taxes into court and withheld other such taxes, it waived any objection to the trial court's adjudication of the sales-tax dispute. It is axiomatic that, where a court has no jurisdiction to consider the subject matter of a cause, the litigants may not confer authority on that court to consider that matter by their agreement, stipulation, or other conduct. 21 C.J.S.Courts § 84 (2006).
AFFIRMED IN PART; REVERSED IN PART; AND REMANDED.
COBB, C.J., and SEE, LYONS, WOODALL, STUART, SMITH, PARKER, and MURDOCK, JJ., concur.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Russell Petroleum, Inc. v. City of Wetumpka, a Municipal Corporation.
- Cited By
- 4 cases
- Status
- Published