Ellwood Engineered Castings Co. v. Zaino

98 Ohio St. 3d 424
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedApril 23, 2003
DocketNo. 2002-0658
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 98 Ohio St. 3d 424 (Ellwood Engineered Castings Co. v. Zaino) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ellwood Engineered Castings Co. v. Zaino, 98 Ohio St. 3d 424 (Ohio 2003).

Opinions

Per Curiam.

{¶ 1} Appellee and cross-appellant Ellwood Engineered Castings Company’s (“EEC”) primary business is manufacturing castings for the steel and automotive industries. The principal raw materials used by EEC are scrap ingot molds. When the scrap molds are received at EEC’s property, they are unloaded and stacked by a crane owned and operated by International Mill Service, Inc. (“IMS”), with whom EEC has contracted. IMS is paid on a tonnage basis for unloading the scrap molds, breaking them into pieces, and using its truck to deliver the pieces to an area designated by EEC.

{¶ 2} After the scrap molds are dumped by IMS, EEC uses its own boom crane to sort the pieces into 1,500-ton piles. EEC then uses its boom crane to load the piles into gondola rail cars, which deliver the scrap to the melt shop. After the pieces are melted, they are used to make castings.

{¶ 3} Prior to making a casting, a sand mold is made by compacting sand around a pattern in a flask and allowing it to harden. After the pattern is stripped out of the sand mold, molten metal is poured into the space left by the pattern.

{¶ 4} Before being compacted around the pattern, the sand used to make a sand mold is heated and mixed with chemicals. As the sand travels through the heating and mixing process, abrasion and rubbing of the sand particles create small particles called “fines.” The fines need to be removed before the sand is compacted to prevent the sand mold from crumbling and falling apart. To remove the fines from the sand before it reaches the sand molds, EEC has installed dust collectors. The dust collectors also prevent fines from entering the air in the plant.

{¶ 5} EEC was audited for use taxes for the period July 1, 1995, to September 30,1998. Among the purchases assessed were costs associated with its boom crane and costs for the dust collectors.

{¶ 6} Contending that these costs were for equipment primarily used in its manufacturing operation to produce tangible personal property for sale and therefore excepted from taxation, EEC filed a petition for reassessment. After a hearing, the Tax Commissioner denied EEC’s objections relating to the boom crane and the dust collectors. EEC appealed to the Board of Tax Appeals (“BTA”). After a hearing, during which EEC presented testimony of its plant engineer and controller, the BTA reversed the commissioner’s assessment against costs associated with the boom crane and affirmed the commissioner’s assessment [426]*426against costs for the dust collectors. Specifically, the BTA found that the Tax Commissioner had erred in determining that the production activities of IMS and EEC involved two manufacturing processes rather than one.

{¶ 7} The Tax Commissioner filed his appeal seeking reversal of the BTA’s decision relating to the boom crane, in part by questioning the jurisdiction of the BTA to determine whether the IMS-EEC relationship created one or two manufacturing processes. EEC filed a cross-appeal seeking reversal of the BTA’s decision upholding the assessment of use tax against its dust collectors.

{¶ 8} This cause is now before the court upon an appeal and cross-appeal as of right.

{¶ 9} The threshold question is whether the BTA lacked jurisdiction to consider the Tax Commissioner’s determination that there were two manufacturing processes conducted on EEC’s premises when no alleged error in this regard was specified in EEC’s notice of appeal to the BTA.

{¶ 10} The statutory requirements for filing an appeal from a final determination of the Tax Commissioner to the BTA are set forth in R.C. 5717.02, which provides, “Such appeals shall be taken by the filing of a notice of appeal with the board * * *. * * * The notice of appeal shall have attached thereto * * * a true copy of the notice sent by the commissioner * * * and shall also specify the errors therein complained of * * *. ” (Emphasis added.)

{¶ 11} In Am. Restaurant & Lunch Co. v. Glander (1946), 147 Ohio St. 147, 149-150, 34 O.O. 8, 70 N.E.2d 93, we reviewed the requirements for filing a notice of appeal under G.C. 5611, the predecessor to R.C. 5717.02, and held:

{¶ 12} “These requirements are specific and in terms that are mandatory. The very statute which authorizes the appeal prescribes the conditions and procedure under and by which such appeal may be perfected. Where a statute confers the right of appeal, adherence to the conditions thereby imposed is essential to the enjoyment of the right conferred. ‘The party who seeks to exercise this right, must comply with whatever terms the statutes of the state impose upon him as conditions to its enjoyment,’ ” quoting Collins v. Millen (1897), 57 Ohio St. 289, 291, 48 N.E. 1097.

{¶ 13} EEC asserts that there was one manufacturing process — i.e., that IMS began the manufacturing process, and EEC completed it. Based on its assertion that there was only one manufacturing process, EEC argued that its boom crane should be excepted from taxation because it was moving work-in-progress from one step of manufacturing to another. However, the commissioner rejected EEC’s argument, finding that “[t]he problem with the petitioner’s argument is that since there are two entities, IMS and Ellwood Engineered Castings, there are two manufacturing processes at issue — not one.” In determining that there [427]*427were two manufacturing operations rather than one, the commissioner found that the boom crane was not excepted from taxation as being used for moving work-in-process.

{¶ 14} The notice of appeal that EEC filed with the BTA set forth the following:

{¶ 15} “The Tax Commissioner’s Final Determination is erroneous, unreasonable and unlawful in that:

{¶ 16} “1. It imposes tax upon EEC’s costs associated with its boom crane and dust collectors which are production machinery exempt from tax under R.C. § 5739.01(E)(9).

{¶ 17} “2. It imposes tax on costs associated with the boom crane and dust collectors which are not subject to tax pursuant to R.C. §§ 5739.01(B) and 5739.02(B).

{¶ 18} “3. It is not based on evidence and is contrary to law.”

{¶ 19} In Queen City Valves v. Peck (1954), 161 Ohio St. 579, 583, 53 O.O. 430, 120 N.E.2d 310, we held that “[u]nder the wording of the statute the [BTA] was entitled to be advised specifically of the various errors charged to the Tax Commissioner. The statute requires in plain language that the errors complained of be specified.”

{¶ 20} In Buckeye Internatl., Inc. v. Limbach (1992), 64 Ohio St.3d 264, 267, 595 N.E.2d 347, we held, “Failure to include errors in the notice of appeal to the BTA results in the BTA’s lack of jurisdiction over the errors and the court’s inability to review such errors.” We have also held that “[u]nder R.C. 5717.02, a notice of appeal does not confer jurisdiction upon the Board of Tax Appeals to resolve an issue, unless that issue is clearly specified in the notice of appeal.” Cleveland Elec. Illum. Co. v. Lindley (1982), 69 Ohio St.2d 71, 75, 23 O.O.3d 118, 430 N.E.2d 939.

{¶ 21} The jurisdictional issue raised by the Tax Commissioner in this case is essentially the same issue he raised in Lenart v. Lindley

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Bluebook (online)
98 Ohio St. 3d 424, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ellwood-engineered-castings-co-v-zaino-ohio-2003.