City of Philadelphia v. Opinion Dynamics Corp.

185 F. Supp. 2d 442, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1985, 2002 WL 200107
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 6, 2002
DocketNo. Civ.A.01-689
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 185 F. Supp. 2d 442 (City of Philadelphia v. Opinion Dynamics Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Philadelphia v. Opinion Dynamics Corp., 185 F. Supp. 2d 442, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1985, 2002 WL 200107 (E.D. Pa. 2002).

Opinion

OPINION

POLLAK, District Judge.

This case arises out of efforts by the City of Philadelphia (“the City”) to collect [443]*443wage taxes from McGinley Research, Inc., d/b/a Research Corporation of America (“McGinley”). Under the City’s Wage and Net Profits Tax Ordinance, Philadelphia Code § 19-1500 et seq., employers are required to deduct city wage taxes from the wages of their employees and file quarterly returns and tax payments. The City contends that McGinley failed to file wage tax returns or pay its wage taxes for the second and third quarters of 1995. The City accordingly filed a complaint in state court against McGinley to collect those taxes, but that complaint was dismissed because McGinley is bankrupt.

The City now seeks to collect McGin-ley’s unpaid taxes from Opinion Dynamics Corporation (“ODC”) and two of ODC’s officers, John W. Gorman and Ernest Paieo-polos. The City alleges that ODC controlled McGinley’s business affairs after mid-1995 and withheld wage taxes from McGinley’s employees, but failed to file McGinley’s tax returns or pay its wage taxes. As a result, the City filed a collection action against ODC in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas on January 12, 2001. On February 9, 2001, the defendants removed the action from state court to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, alleging federal jurisdiction based on diversity of citizenship.1 The City moves for remand, contending that the Tax Injunction Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1341, deprives this court of jurisdiction.

In its entirety, 28 U.S.C. § 1341 provides:

The district courts shall not enjoin, suspend or restrain the assessment, levy or collection of any tax under State law where a plain, speedy and efficient remedy may be had in the courts of such State.

The City argues that, in resisting collection of the disputed wage taxes, the defendants are, in effect, asking that this court “enjoin, suspend or restrain the assessment, levy or collection” of a municipal tax, within the meaning of the Tax Injunction Act,2 and hence that this removed suit must be remanded for lack of jurisdiction. In response, the defendants contend that under the Supreme Court’s decision in Jefferson County v. Acker, 527 U.S. 423, 435, 119 S.Ct. 2069, 144 L.Ed.2d 408 (1999), the Tax Injunction Act does not apply to this case.

In Jefferson County, the Court examined, inter alia, whether the Tax Injunction Act prevented a federal court from hearing a suit originally filed by Jefferson County, Alabama, in an Alabama small claims court. The county’s suit sought to collect occupational taxes allegedly owed by two federal district judges. The judges removed the case to federal district court, alleging that the tax violated the intergovernmental tax immunity doctrine. As part of its ruling that there was federal question jurisdiction over the case, the Supreme Court held unanimously that the Tax Injunction Act did not preclude such [444]*444jurisdiction.3 Justice Ginsburg, writing for the Court, noted that:

By its terms, the Act bars anticipatory relief, suits to stop (“enjoin, suspend or restrain”) the collection of taxes.... But a suit to ■ collect a tax is surely not brought to restrain state action, and therefore does not fit the Act’s description of suits barred from federal district court adjudication. See Louisiana Land & Exploration Co. v. Pilot Petroleum Corp., 900 F.2d 816, 818 (C.A.5 1990) (“The Tax Injunction Act does not bar federal court jurisdiction [of a] suit ... to collect a state tax.”).
The Tax Injunction Act was ... shaped by state and federal provisions barring anticipatory actions by taxpayers to stop the tax collector from initiating collection proceedings. It was not the design of these provisions to prohibit taxpayers from defending suits brought by a government to obtain collection of a tax. Congress, it appears, sought particularly to stop out-of-state corporations from using diversity jurisdiction to gain injunctive relief against a state tax in federal court, an advantage unavailable to in-state taxpayers denied anticipatory relief under state law. See [S.Rep. No. 1035, 75th Cong., 1st Sess., 1, 2 (1937)]. In sum, we hold that the Tax Injunction Act, as indicated by its terms and purpose, does not bar collection suits, nor does it prevent taxpayers from urging defenses in such suits that the tax for which collection is sought is invalid.

Id. at 433-35, 119 S.Ct. 2069.

This court cannot discern any meaningful distinction between the case at bar and Jefferson County. Although the latter case was removed based on federal question jurisdiction, while the instant one was removed based on diversity jurisdiction, the Supreme Court did not suggest that the nature of the underlying federal jurisdiction affected its interpretation of the Tax Injunction Act. See School Board v. Quala Systems, 159 F.Supp.2d 295, 299 (E.D.La.2001) (“in Jefferson County the Court ... gave no indication that diversity jurisdiction under the Tax Injunction Act would be analyzed in a different manner”).

The City argues alternatively that even if Jefferson County controls this case, the court should abstain from exercising jurisdiction. The City contends that applying Jefferson County on the facts of this case would mean that out-of-state employers could remove to federal court all4 tax collection cases instituted against them by the City. See generally Quala Systems, 159 F.Supp.2d at 299 (recognizing, but questioning, distinction in Jefferson County between “seeking to enjoin the collection of a tax” and “cho[osing] not to pay it”). As a result, the City argues, “[p]rin-ciples of federalism and comity” counsel against the exercise of jurisdiction. For this proposition, the City cites Keleher v. New England Telephone & Telegraph Co., 947 F.2d 547 (2d Cir.1991). In Keleher, the Second Circuit considered a diversity action instituted on behalf of the city of Burlington, Vermont, to obtain a declaratory judgment sustaining the city’s authority to tax an out-of-state defendant. Ke-leher held that the Tax Injunction Act “creates an absolute jurisdictional bar to [445]*445federal involvement in state and local revenue collection schemes, and that, as a result, a federal court may not play any role at all in the tax enforcement efforts of state or local governments.” 947 F.2d at 548. Although the Jefferson County Court expressed disagreement with this aspect of Keleher, it left untouched the Second Circuit’s alternate holding: that “general principles of federal court abstention ... require us to stay our hand here.” 947 F.2d at 551 (citing Colorado River Water Conservation Dist. v. United States, 424 U.S. 800, 96 S.Ct.

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Bluebook (online)
185 F. Supp. 2d 442, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1985, 2002 WL 200107, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-philadelphia-v-opinion-dynamics-corp-paed-2002.