Pecora Oil Co. v. Johnson

509 N.E.2d 495, 156 Ill. App. 3d 521, 108 Ill. Dec. 799, 1987 Ill. App. LEXIS 2593
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMay 12, 1987
Docket2-86-0908
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 509 N.E.2d 495 (Pecora Oil Co. v. Johnson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pecora Oil Co. v. Johnson, 509 N.E.2d 495, 156 Ill. App. 3d 521, 108 Ill. Dec. 799, 1987 Ill. App. LEXIS 2593 (Ill. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

JUSTICE DUNN

delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiffs, Ted Pécora and Pécora Oil Company (Pécora), filed an action for a writ of mandamus, declaratory relief, and an injunction against defendant, J. Thomas Johnson, Director of the Department of Revenue (Director). The trial court issued an order granting the request for a writ of mandamus and an injunction compelling the production of certain records sought by Pécora pursuant to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 116, par. 201 et seq.). The Director appeals from the trial court’s ruling, asserting that the requested records are exempt from disclosure under the Retailers’ Occupation Tax Act (ROTA) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 120, par. 440 et seq.) and under the FOIA.

Pécora purchases motor fuel from various refineries and distributes the fuel to retailers for sale to consumers. Under section 2d of the ROTA (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 120, par. 441d), Pécora is required to prepay to each of its suppliers the retailers’ occupation tax on the motor fuel received from that supplier and distributed to a retailer. Section 2e of the ROTA (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 120, par. 441e) requires suppliers and distributors to file monthly statements of taxes paid for each of their fuel purchasers showing the amount of motor fuel sold or distributed to that purchaser during the preceding month and the amount collected from that purchaser.

In its brief on appeal, Pécora states that deficiencies were assessed against it by the Department of Revenue for a 34-month period from January 1983 until October 1985. Pécora challenged these deficiencies in an administrative proceeding and sought the records in question in connection with that proceeding. Pécora made its FOIA request to the Department by letter dated May 20, 1986, and sought the following:

“1. Copies of records which reflect the invoiced gallons of motor fuel that refiners, suppliers, or producers have reported as sold to Pécora Oil Co. for the thirty-four calendar months of January 1983 through October 1985.
2. Copies of records which reflect the invoiced gallons of motor fuel which were reported by Pécora as purchased from refiners, suppliers, or producers for the thirty-four calendar months of January 1983 through October 1985.
3. Copies of records which purports [sic] to show the reconciliation between the invoiced gallons of motor fuel that refiners, suppliers or producers have reported as sold to Pécora Oil Company and the invoiced gallons of motor fuel that were reported by Pécora Oil Company as purchased from refiners, suppliers, or producers for each of the thirty-three calendar months of January 1983 through September 1985.”

The Department only granted the request with respect to the records sought in item two. The Department cited section 7(b)(iv) of the FOIA (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 116, par. 207(b)(iv)) as the basis for its denial of access to the records sought in items one and three. After its appeal to the Director was denied, Pécora filed the instant action pursuant to section 11 of the FOIA (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 116, par. 211) in the circuit court of Du Page County.

The Director never filed an answer to Pécora’s complaint. A hearing was held on the return date of July 29, 1986, during which the trial court ordered the parties to submit memoranda of law and set the matter for a further hearing. At the second hearing, held on September 2,1986, the trial court issued its ruling in favor of Pécora.

There is no report of proceedings in the record on appeal, nor is there a substitute pursuant to Supreme Court Rules 323(c) or (d) (87 Ill. 2d Rules 323(c), (d)). As the appellant, the Director has the burden of presenting a sufficiently complete record of the proceedings in the trial court to support its claim of error; in the absence of such a record we will presume that the trail court’s ruling was in conformity with the law and had a sufficient factual basis. (Foutch v. O’Bryant (1984), 99 Ill. 2d 389, 391-92, 459 N.E.2d 958.) Any doubts which arise from the incompleteness of the record will be resolved against the appellant. (99 Ill. 2d 389, 392.) This court may, however, review any issues whose resolution does not depend upon the matter omitted from the record on appeal. Lakeland Property Owners Association v. Larson (1984), 121 Ill. App. 3d 805, 809, 459 N.E.2d 1164.

The Director first contends that the requested records are exempt as a matter of law under section 7(b)(iv) of the FOIA (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 116, par. 207(b)(iv)) from public inspection and copying. The relevant portions of section 7 of the FOIA read as follows:

“The following shall be exempt from inspection and copying: ***
(b) Information which, if disclosed, would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, unless such disclosure is consented to in writing by the individual subject of such information. The disclosure of information that bears on the public duties of public employees and officials shall not be considered an invasion of personal privacy. Information exempted under this subsection (b) shall include but is not limited to:
* * *
(iv) information required of any taxpayer in connection with the assessment or collection of any tax unless disclosure is otherwise required by State statute.” (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 116, par. 207(b)(iv).)

The Director maintains that any records falling within any of the five subsections of section 7(b) are automatically exempted from disclosure under the FOIA, citing the Appellate Court for the Fourth District’s holding in Copley Press, Inc. v. City of Springfield (1986), 143 Ill. App. 3d 370, 493 N.E.2d 127. Pécora disagrees, citing the Appellate Court for the Third District’s holding in City of Monmouth v. Galesburg Printing & Publishing Co. (1986), 144 Ill. App. 3d 224, 494 N.E.2d 896, for the proposition that, even if records fall within one of the subsections of section 7(b), the governmental entity must still show that disclosure of the records would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy in order to justify any refusal to disclose the records. 144 Ill. App. 3d 224, 228.

We need not decide this issue, however, since the Director has failed to demonstrate that the requested records are covered by section 7(b)(iv) of the FOIA. The Director admits that Pecora’s suppliers are not subject to the retailers’ occupation tax on the fuel sold to Pecora. Since the records in question do not contain information required of Pecora’s suppliers in their status as taxpayers, section 7(b)(iv) of the FOIA is inapplicable.

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Bluebook (online)
509 N.E.2d 495, 156 Ill. App. 3d 521, 108 Ill. Dec. 799, 1987 Ill. App. LEXIS 2593, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pecora-oil-co-v-johnson-illappct-1987.