Quality School Plan, Inc. v. State

301 So. 2d 183, 53 Ala. App. 418, 1974 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 494
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedJune 19, 1974
DocketCiv. 310
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 301 So. 2d 183 (Quality School Plan, Inc. v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Quality School Plan, Inc. v. State, 301 So. 2d 183, 53 Ala. App. 418, 1974 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 494 (Ala. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

*420 BRADLEY, Judge.

The Department of Revenue of the State of Alabama (hereinafter called “State”) entered a final assessment against Quality School Plan, Inc., a corporation, (hereinafter referred to as “QSP”) for use taxes in the amount of $35,992.16 for the period July 1, 1965 through June 30, 1968. QSP appealed this use tax assessment to the Circuit Court of Montgomery County where, after a hearing, the assessment was affirmed. QSP has perfected its appeal from said judgment to this court.

The facts reveal that QSP was a Delaware corporation doing business in Alabama through two sales representatives. These representatives would call on high school and junior high school principals and attempt to sell them on a plan whereby the schools through student salesmen could earn money by selling magazine subscriptions. As an added incentive to the student salesmen, prizes were given by QSP to the students achieving top sales.

The schools agreeing to undertake the sales of magazine subscriptions would be furnished materials such as collection envelopes, brochures listing the names of the magazines to be sold, sales order forms, instruction sheet forms, summary report forms, etc. by QSP. All orders for subscriptions to magazines received by the student salesmen also would be sent to QSP. The money collected from the sales of magazine subscriptions would be sent to QSP after the commission due the student salesmen was deducted. QSP would then forward the orders and money to the various magazine publishers and receive back its previously agreed on fee for the sales.

The copy of the subscription form given to the customer by the student salesman had imprinted on it a directive that all inquiries concerning the magazine subscriptions should be made to QSP at its Pleasantville, New York office.

The trial court in its opinion found that QSP was an out-of-state dealer or vendor with the duty to collect use tax as directed by Title 51, Sections 790(c) and 792(c), Code of Alabama 1940, as Recompiled 1958. QSP contends that it is not a vendor of magazine subscriptions, but is a seller of services, not tangible personal property. QSP also argues .that the imposition upon it of the duty of collecting Alabama use tax violates the due process and commerce clauses of the fourteenth amendment, U. S. Constitution and the due process provisions of the Alabama constitution.

Title 51, Sections 790(c) and 792(c), supra, provide that:

“Every seller engaged in making retail sales of tangible personal property for . . . use ... in this state, who: . . . (c) solicits and receives purchases or orders by agent or salesman, . . .”

shall remit to the State the use tax thereon.

QSP argues that it does not come within the purview of the above statutes for the reason that it did not make a sale of tangible property through an agent or salesman. It says that the subscriptions were sold by students and the sales were accepted by the publishers of the magazines. *421 Further, QSP says that it merely furnished advice to the various schools and its students on methods for fund raising.

The evidence is without dispute that QSP’s employees would go to various schools in Alabama and -encourage the sale of magazine subscriptions by student salesmen. It is also unquestioned that the device used by QSP’s agents to encourage the schools to undertake the sale of magazine subscriptions was the reward of additional money for use by the school and prizes to the student salesmen. All of the promotional literature was furnished by QSP; all of the forms for reporting orders and receipts were furnished by QSP; and all of the money received from the sale of subscriptions, less sales commissions, was sent to QSP. All of the transactions for the sale of subscriptions were between QSP and the various schools. QSP did forward to the various publishers the amount of the subscription price less the sales commission and then receive back from the publisher its fee as previously arranged.

Under these facts the conclusion is inescapable that QSP sold magazine subscriptions through student salesmen. Furthermore, there is no indication in the evidence that the sale made by QSP through its salesmen is other than a retail sale.

Additionally, QSP says that its relationship with the student vendors was not an agency arrangement and relies on Ex parte Emerson, 270 Ala. 697, 121 So.2d 914. Emerson does stand for the proposition that the principal must exercise or have the right to exercise control over the agent in order for there to be an agency relationship. However, we do not believe that the term “agent or salesman” as used in Sections 790(c) and 792(c) should be so restrictively interpreted, for the Supreme Court in Ex parte Newbern, 286 Ala. 348, 239 So.2d 792, said:

“We do not think the statute requires a ‘legal relationship’ between seller and solicitor. The main thrust of Title 51, § 792(c), supra, seems to us simply to require solicitation of orders for the seller by persons within the state who are characterized as ‘agents or salesmen.’ We do not think that the legislature intended a seller conducting such solicitation to avoid collecting the use tax merely by showing that its salesmen failed to come within some technical definition of ‘salesman’ or lacked some legal, relationship with the out-of-state seller not articulated in the statute.”

Construing the term “agents or salesmen” in the light of Ex parte Newbern, we believe a sufficient relationship has been shown between QSP and the Alabama schools to warrant us in concluding that a valid agency existed between QSP and the various schools it solicited to- sell magazine subscriptions and that the students selling the subscriptions were its “salesmen.”

QSP argues that the factual situation in the case at bar is controlled by the recent supreme Court case of State v. MacFadden-Bartell Corp., 280 Ala. 386, 194 So.2d 543. In that case a New York based corporation (MacFadden-Bartell) sold magazines to an Alabama Corporation (EBSCO). The Alabama company in turn sold the magazines to various individuals in Alabama. The Supreme Court held that MacFadden-Bartell was not liable for the use tax. The court said that EBSCO was operating its own separate business. That is not the situation here. Further, MacFadden had no agents as salesmen in the state nor did it have any contacts with EBSCO other than through the mails. QSP had two resident fulltime employees in Alabama plus the student salesmen. Finally, the court concluded that EBSCO was purchasing a subscription wholesale and selling retail, and, therefore, MacFadden could not be said to be making retail sales as are required by the statute. There was no evidence in the case at bar that the magazine subscription sales were other than at retail. Consequently, we do not believe that MacFadden-Bartell is apt authority for the- case at bar.

QSP also says that a magazine subscription is not tangible personal property. *422 We have been unable to find an Alabama case specifically so holding, although there is language in MacFadden-Bartell suggesting this result. However, the Illinois Supreme Court in Time, Inc. v.

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301 So. 2d 183, 53 Ala. App. 418, 1974 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 494, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/quality-school-plan-inc-v-state-alacivapp-1974.