Atlanta Americana Motor Hotel Corp. v. Undercofler

149 S.E.2d 691, 222 Ga. 295, 1966 Ga. LEXIS 461
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedJune 23, 1966
Docket23482
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 149 S.E.2d 691 (Atlanta Americana Motor Hotel Corp. v. Undercofler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Atlanta Americana Motor Hotel Corp. v. Undercofler, 149 S.E.2d 691, 222 Ga. 295, 1966 Ga. LEXIS 461 (Ga. 1966).

Opinions

Grice, Justice.

The sustaining of general demurrers to a petition seeking refunds of sales tax payments is for review here. The petition, in two counts, was filed in the Superior Court of Fulton County by Atlanta Americana Motor Hotel Corporation against Hiram K. Undercofier, as State Revenue Commissioner. Count 1 seeks recovery of a specified amount collected by it as sales tax from rooms, lodgings and accommodations furnished by it. Count 2 claims rebate of a stated sum paid by the plaintiff as sales tax when it purchased certain tangible personal property for use in the rooms which it rented.

Count 1, insofar as essential here, alleged that which follows. The defendant is indebted to the plaintiff in a specified amount as sales tax erroneously or illegally collected by the defendant from it for the taxable periods from April 1962 through June 1964. During such periods the plaintiff owned and operated a hotel in Fulton County, which business included lease, rental or charges for the use of rooms in said hotel furnished to transients.

The plaintiff, a dealer registered under the Georgia Retailers’ and Consumers’ Sales and Use Tax Act (Ga. L. 1951, p. 360, as amended), with a given registration number, was and is the “taxpayer” under said statute.

For such periods the plaintiff duly filed with the Sales and Use Tax Unit of the Department of Revenue tax returns as required by said Act, and paid to it the tax liability shown to be due thereon. Included in such payments was the amount now sought to be recovered, representing the three percent tax less dealers’ statutory compensation, computed on the sum received by the plaintiff from lease, rental or charges for the use of rooms in said hotel during the taxable periods. The plaintiff filed with the defendant a claim for refund of such tax, but the claim was denied.

[297]*297This tax was erroneously and illegally collected because of the following. Section 2 of the'Act levies and imposes a tax of three percent of the sales price, gross lease or rental charge on the retail sale or rental of tangible personal property. Section 3 (c) 1 (b) of the Act provides that for the purpose of such tax the terms “retail sale” or “sale at retail” shall include “The sale or charges for any room or rooms, lodgings, or accommodations furnished to transients by any hotel ... or any other place in which rooms, lodgings or accommodations are regularly furnished to transients for a consideration. . .” The rooms in plaintiff’s hotel which are occupied by transients constitute real property, and the lease, rental or charge to transients for the use of such rooms constitutes the lease, rental or charge for real property or its use. Section 3(c) 1 (b) of the Act violates Art. Ill, Sec. VII, Par. VIII of the Georgia Constitution (Code Ann. § 2-1908), which provides that “No law shall pass which . . . contains matter different from what is expressed in the title thereof” for the reason that- the title gives notice of its intention to tax leases and rentals of “tangible personal property,” but gives no notice of an intention to tax the lease, rental or other charge for the use of real property.

Count 2 is in the alternative and the plaintiff acknowledges that it will not lie if count 1 is sustained. Count 2 in material part, alleged as follows.

It incorporated by reference the recitals in count 1 as to jurisdiction, the plaintiff’s registration as a dealer under the Act and its hotel ownership and operation.

It alleged that the defendant is indebted to the plaintiff in a specified sum as sales tax erroneously or illegally collected from the plaintiff during the taxable periods from April 1962 through June 1964.

Included in the plaintiff’s hotel rooms furnished to transients were carpeting, furniture, linens, blankets, towels, soap, paper, television sets, and other articles of tangible personal property which it rented, leased or sold to such transients as a part of the charge for use of said hotel rooms.

During such periods the plaintiff purchased those items of personal property at a named cost, which included Georgia sales [298]*298tax in the stated amount, collected from the plaintiff by its suppliers and paid to the Sales and Use Tax Unit of the Department of Revenue. The plaintiff filed with the defendant a claim for refund of such tax, but this claim was denied by the defendant.

This tax was erroneously and illegally collected from the plaintiff because the sale to the plaintiff was not a “retail sale” or a “sale at retail” since the plaintiff purchased the personal property for the purpose of resale in the form of tangible personal property and it was resold and is being resold to transients in the manner hereinabove alleged.

Upon the sustaining of general demurrers to the petition as a whole and to each of these two counts the plaintiff appealed and enumerated the same as errors.

Considering first count 1, we conclude that it is subject to general demurrer.

Obviously, this count states no cause of action unless the constitutional attack is sustained, and as we view the allegations, the plaintiff has no standing to make a constitutional attack because it alleges no injury to itself from the application of the statute it seeks to challenge.

The money which the plaintiff seeks to recover was not actually paid by it. Instead it was paid by its guests. The plaintiff merely collected the tax from them and remitted it to the defendant. In fact, it received the dealers’ statutory compensation for collecting and remitting the tax. It sustained no monetary loss, nor any other injury so far as is alleged. Applicable here is the rule that “Before a statute can be attacked by anyone on the ground of its unconstitutionality, he must show that its enforcement is an infringement upon his right of person or property . . . He must show that the alleged unconstitutional feature of the statute injures him . . .” South Ga. Nat. Gas Co. v. Georgia Public Service Comm., 214 Ga. 174 (104 SE2d 97).

The plaintiff contends, however, that it is entitled to maintain the suit as a “taxpayer” by virtue of the two statutory refund provisions which it pleads as the jurisdictional bases for the action (Ga. L. 1951, pp. 360, 382, as amended; Code Ann. [299]*299§ 92-3434a; and Ga. L. 1938, Ex. Sess., pp. 77, 94, as amended; Code Ann. § 92-8436 (b)), and also asserts that the 1960 amendment to Section 2 of the Sales and Use Tax Act (Ga. L. 1960, pp. 153, 154; Code Ann. § 92-3402a) did not relieve the seller or lessor from being a taxpayer under the Act, but added the purchaser or rentee as a taxpayer also.

We cannot sustain this contention. The statutory authority to sue for refund, even if it should include the plaintiff under the circumstances here — which we do not decide, does not provide the standing to attack the constitutionality of a statute where the facts alleged show no injury from enforcement of such statute.

While the precise question here has not heretofore been passed upon by this court, our conclusion is in accord with that prevailing in other jurisdictions. See 51 Am. Jur. 1010-1011, Taxation, §§ 1174-1176; 84 CJS 1263, Taxation, § 631; Annot., 119 ALR 542; Re Kesbec, Inc. v. McGoldrick, 278 N.Y. 293 (16 NE2d 288, 119 ALR 536); Krauss Co. v. Develle, 236 La. 1072 (110 S2d 104).

Therefore, count 1 does not state a cause of action.

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149 S.E.2d 691, 222 Ga. 295, 1966 Ga. LEXIS 461, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/atlanta-americana-motor-hotel-corp-v-undercofler-ga-1966.