Commonwealth v. At & T Corp.

462 S.W.3d 399, 2015 Ky. LEXIS 1631, 2015 WL 3636136
CourtKentucky Supreme Court
DecidedJune 11, 2015
Docket2013-SC-000800-DG
StatusPublished

This text of 462 S.W.3d 399 (Commonwealth v. At & T Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Kentucky Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. At & T Corp., 462 S.W.3d 399, 2015 Ky. LEXIS 1631, 2015 WL 3636136 (Ky. 2015).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT BY

JUSTICE CUNNINGHAM’

Appellee, AT <& T, is a corporation that provides various communication services throughout Kentucky and worldwide. Appellants are the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Finance and Administration Cabinet, et al. (collectively, Cabinet). A corporation that satisfies the requirements provided in KRS 139.505 is entitled to a refundable credit for sales taxes paid under Chapter 139. The Cabinet is charged with making the initial determination to approve or deny the claim. If the claim is denied, the taxpayer may protest that determination within the Cabinet. The taxpayer may then appeal any adverse ruling to the Kentucky Board of Tax Appeals (“KBTA”), and then to the Franklin Circuit Court or to the Circuit Court of the county in which the aggrieved party resides or conducts business. KRS 131.370(1).

In 2004, AT & T filed refund claims with the Cabinet arguing that, under KRS 139.505, AT & T was entitled to refunds for tax years 2002 and 2003. On May 13, 2008, the Cabinet agreed to a partial refund for AT & T’s 2002 claim. AT & T received a check for $677,425 for that partial refund. In 2008, AT & T filed refund claims for tax years 2004 through 2008. The total sum claimed for all years is approximately $13,000,000, not including interest.

The Cabinet contends that it initially denied all of AT & T’s claims, and that those claims are currently pending before the Cabinet’s Division of Protest Resolution. For clarification, these claims include the unpaid portion of the 2002 claim, and the entirety of the claims for 2003 through 2008. The Cabinet states that AT & T has the right to request a formal ruling under KRS 131.110(4), and then appeal that ruling if necessary. However, AT & T asserts that the Cabinet has not formally denied its refund claims. AT & T contends that without a formal denial in the form of a final ruling, it is statutorily precluded from filing an appeal with the KBTA.

[401]*401The only documents presented to this Court that detail the extent of this administrative quagmire are letters between counsel for AT & T and the Cabinet. These letters are dated from 2005 through 2011. On July 7, 2010, representatives from AT & T and the Cabinet met to discuss the refund claims. It is clear from the appended letters that after this meeting, the Cabinet continued to request additional information and documentation concerning the claims. Although it appears that AT & T attempted to comply with the Department’s prior requests, the Cabinet made additional requests for information.

In what AT & T calls a “last resort,” it filed a declaration of rights action in the Jefferson Circuit Court in 2011 alleging eight counts. Count one asserted that “the purported Budget Bill ‘Amendments’ to KRS 139.505 Contravene and Violate Section 51 of the Kentucky Constitution.” This is a facial challenge to the constitutionality of these amendments. While the remaining seven counts do not raise facial constitutional challenges, several include unconstitutional as-applied claims.

The Jefferson Circuit Court dismissed the case for failure to exhaust administrative remedies. The court determined that AT & T’s administrative and as-applied constitutional challenges must be adjudicated by the KBTA before the court would address AT & T’s facial constitutional challenge. The Court of Appeals reversed the trial court and determined that the facial constitutional issue raised by AT & T was one that the KBTA cannot decide, but that the other claims were properly dismissed. The Court of Appeals remanded the case to the trial court to address only the facial constitutional challenge. After reviewing the record and the law, we reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals.

Analysis

“Exhaustion of administrative remedies is not necessary when attacking the constitutionality of a statute or a regulation as void on its face. This is because an administrative agency cannot decide constitutional issues.” Commonwealth v. DLX, Inc., 42 S.W.3d 624, 626 (Ky.2001) (citing Goodwin v. City of Louisville, 309 Ky. 11, 215 S.W.2d 557 (1948)). However, “a party must exhaust administrative remedies prior to seeking judicial review of an as-applied constitutional challenge.” Popplewell’s Alligator Dock No. 1, Inc. v. Cabinet, 133 S.W.3d 456, 472 (Ky.2004) (citing DLX, Inc., 42 S.W.3d at 626).

Here, AT & T challenges the amendments to KRS 139.505. It appears that these amendments decreased the amount of refund credit to which AT & T would have been otherwise entitled if the Cabinet employed the pre-amended version of KRS 139.505. AT & T specifically argues that the 2002-2004 and 2004-2006 Budget Bill amendments violated Section 51 of the Kentucky Constitution which states:

No law enacted by the General Assembly shall relate to more than one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title, and no law shall be revised, amended, or the provisions thereof extended or conferred by reference to its title only, but so much thereof as is revised, amended, extended or conferred, shall be reenacted and published at length.

The purpose of Section 51 is “to prevent surprise and fraud on the members of the General Assembly and other interested parties, thus precluding the practice of ‘log rolling.’ ” Grayson County Board of Education v. Casey, 157 S.W.3d 201, 208 (Ky.2005).

If the amendments to KRS 139.505 violated Ky. Const. § 51, then they are void. As such, AT & T would be entitled to [402]*402refunds for each tax year in which AT & T overpaid yet did not receive a refund as a result of the unconstitutional amendments. As previously noted, the Court of Appeals determined that this is a constitutional issue that the KBTA cannot decide. However, the court did not consider our recent case of W.B. v. Commonwealth, Cabinet for Health and Family Services, 388 S.W.3d 108, 112-14 (Ky.2012). That decision is critical to our analysis.

W.B. involved an adult individual who was investigated by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services based on allegations of sexual abuse of a minor. Id.

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Related

Grayson County Board of Education v. Casey
157 S.W.3d 201 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 2005)
Commonwealth v. DLX, Inc.
42 S.W.3d 624 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 2001)
St. Ledger v. Commonwealth, Revenue Cabinet
942 S.W.2d 893 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 1997)
Popplewell's Alligator Dock No. 1, Inc. v. Cabinet
133 S.W.3d 456 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 2004)
Goodwin v. City of Louisville
215 S.W.2d 557 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976), 1948)
W.B. v. Commonwealth, Cabinet for Health & Family Services
388 S.W.3d 108 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 2012)

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Bluebook (online)
462 S.W.3d 399, 2015 Ky. LEXIS 1631, 2015 WL 3636136, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-at-t-corp-ky-2015.