Revenue Cabinet v. Armco, Inc.

838 S.W.2d 396, 1992 Ky. App. LEXIS 69, 1992 WL 57139
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedMarch 27, 1992
DocketNo. 91-CA-1015-MR
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 838 S.W.2d 396 (Revenue Cabinet v. Armco, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Revenue Cabinet v. Armco, Inc., 838 S.W.2d 396, 1992 Ky. App. LEXIS 69, 1992 WL 57139 (Ky. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

LESTER, Chief Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment supported by findings of fact and conclusions of law reversing an order of the Board of Tax Appeals concerning sales and use taxes assessed against appellee.

In 1981 Armco embarked on a new manufacturing venture, namely, the fabrication of blooms which are lengths of steel with cross-sections of from 14" to 16" poured from molten steel. In order to make blooms, it is first necessary to acquire and construct a bloom caster which is enclosed in a structure which Armco says is the size of a football field but, based on an aerial photograph in the record, appears to be much larger than the average gridiron. Some parts of the caster are made in the United States while other components are fabricated by foreign manufacturers. In this case, the supplier was Mannesmann Demag which has hundreds of machines in operation, but it must be emphasized that virtually no two are alike because each purchaser formulates its own specifications to suit its particular purposes. This creates the problem that spare or replacement parts may also be unique to a given caster and can take from eight to eighteen months to obtain.

To fully understand the taxation problem, we must first discuss what in the industry is referred to as “infant mortality.” This concept is best described by the testimony of record, the first of which was given by the appellee’s manager of engineering maintenance and services:

Q Now, did you participate in the authorization of the purchase of the first spares which are listed on Exhibit 11, the ladle turret, the tundish, the tundish slide gate and the others?
A Yes, I did.
Q And would you give the reason why Armco authorized and purchased those additional components?
A Yes.
First of all, I think we probably should discuss how first spares are arrived at. When you buy a machine such as this, the vendor of that machine, who is a world-wide supplier of machines, in this case Mannesmann Demag, they have many hundreds of these machines in operation.
So based upon their past history, they know what we, as a new owner, are likely to have problems with. They will give us a list of spares.
In this case, they broke them into a phase one, phase two list, of items that they feel that you absolutely have to have on hand in order to start that machine up, items from their past experience that they feel are most susceptible to failure.
Failure can come about in many ways. Failure can come about due to what we refer to as infant mortality, you plug a new electronic device in and it fails immediately due to some mismanufacture. There is a curve that we often look at on failure rates which shows failure rates on a vertical axis versus time on a horizontal axis as you will find failures on new equipment there is a very high rate [398]*398to start with. And if the device runs for 2 weeks or 3 weeks, the incident of failure is much less likely to occur.
So we cover ourselves first for infant mortality. We cover ourselves for any sort of a device that might fail that would jeopardize the safety of our work force, an interlock disconnect switch or something like this that might fail.
The third thing we try to do is to look at pieces of equipment that if they fail, we would not be able to schedule the operation. In other words, it would be shut down on an unplanned basis.
These devices fall into a couple of different categories. In this instance, we had to buy some of these devices because they were foreign manufacturer and it would take a long time to get. The other reason for failure is that for buying these is that some of these items perhaps made in the United States are one of a kind items. And we have to buy those because if we waited until we had a failure and then ordered them, we could be as much as 8 to 10 months in receiving them.
During that period of time, we would have the machinery out of operation.
So for all of those reasons, we buy what we call here first spares. And that is indeed what’s on this list.
Q You stated that the items are unique but you also stated that the contact, the manufacturer, had a number of these around the world, a couple of these installations around the world?
A Yeah.
Q Would the tundish slide gate at Arna-co be the same as a tundish slide gate at U.S. Steel in Pittsburgh?
A It could be.
Q Is it likely?
A No, it is not likely.
We often try to cross-reference other devices. We also do a risk analysis here. And, for instance, on this particular machine, we have a very large transformer, very, very expensive to buy, not of United States manufacture.
We did not want to spend our money on that if we could avoid that. We found that U.S. Steel in Fairfield had one of these. And we made an arrangement whereby we could try to get each other out of trouble, if you will, send a spare if we could do that. We always make that attempt. It’s a risk analysis.
But in most all instances, the machines, although they are made by the same company, are greatly varied in the details of design, either due to the specification that the company would make on the availability of devices that the machine manufacturer would find.
Q Armco makes its own specifications for the machine?
A That is correct.
Q And—
A As do all others.

In addition to the foregoing, we note the evidence of a consulting engineer, Mr. William Leslie Robinson, whose professional credentials are most extensive, to the effect:

Q Now, from your professional experience and your examination of the bloom caster schematic drawing, and your personal investigation of the history of the bloom caster at the Ashland Works, have you an opinion, based on a reasonable degree engineering certainty, as to whether this — whether the purchase— purchases of the first spares listed on Exhibit 11 about which you have given testimony, were an engineering necessity?
A I have.
Q And what is that opinion?
A That they were of vital necessity.
Q From your professional experience and your examination of the bloom caster schematic drawing and your personal investigation of the history of the bloom caster, have you an opinion, based on a reasonable degree engineering certainty, as to whether the purchases of the first spares listed on Exhibit 11 about which you have given testimony, were a production and business necessity?
A I have.
Q What is that opinion?
A That they were.
[399]*399Q Will you explain your reasons for your answer concerning the engineering necessity?

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Bluebook (online)
838 S.W.2d 396, 1992 Ky. App. LEXIS 69, 1992 WL 57139, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/revenue-cabinet-v-armco-inc-kyctapp-1992.