Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement & Power District v. City of Phoenix

645 P.2d 1251, 132 Ariz. 337, 1982 Ariz. App. LEXIS 426
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedMarch 16, 1982
DocketNo. 1 CA-CIV 4938
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 645 P.2d 1251 (Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement & Power District v. City of Phoenix) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement & Power District v. City of Phoenix, 645 P.2d 1251, 132 Ariz. 337, 1982 Ariz. App. LEXIS 426 (Ark. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

OPINION

EUBANK, Judge.

This appeal involves the question of whether the City of Phoenix has imposed a [338]*338valid tax upon a series of transactions involving the sale of diesel fuel by Chevron, U.S.A. Inc. to the Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District. The City Treasurer issued an assessment covering calendar years 1974, 1975, and 1976 against Chevron which, including penalties, amounted to $110,752.83 for these sales. The Salt River Project was contractually bound to pay this assessment, and paid it under protest while initiating the instant litigation.

The trial judge, on cross-motions for summary judgment, found that the diesel fuel receipts fell within the extra-territorial exemption of § 14 — 40(j), Phoenix City Code. Therefore, he entered judgment in favor of Chevron and the Salt River Project for the full amount of the assessment, as adjusted by factors not relevant to this appeal. The City appealed, arguing that this exemption is not applicable. Appellees contend, however, that the exemption is applicable, and that, if it is not, the tax itself is unconstitutional. We find that the exemption was designed to alleviate the constitutional arguments raised by appellees, and that it is applicable to the case at bar.

The exemption in question reads as follows:

The provisions of this Article shall not apply:
(j) To gross proceeds of sale or gross income derived from the sale of tangible personal property when:
(1) Transference of title and possession occur without the City, and
(2) The stock from which such personal property was taken was not within the corporate limits of the City, and
(3) The order for the tangible personal property was placed without the corporate limits of the City.
For the purpose of this exemption it matters not that all other indicia of business occur within the City, including, but not limited to, accounting, invoicing, payment, centralized purchasing and supply to out-of-City storehouses and out-of-City retail branch outlets from a primary storehouse within the City.

Section 14-40(j), Phoenix City Code. The City concedes that the diesel fuel stock came from without the City, and that title to the fuel was transferred outside the City. The City contends, however, that possession was transferred within the City and that the orders were placed within the City. Upon our review of the undisputed facts, we do not agree with the City’s contentions.

The record shows that the diesel fuel was stored by Chevron in California. Orders for the fuel were made from the Salt River Project offices in Tempe, Arizona, through a Phoenix branch office of Chevron. Chevron’s Phoenix office relayed the orders to the California office of Chevron, which had the authority to fill the orders. The fuel was taken from Chevron’s California storage tanks and shipped F.O.B. by Southern Pacific pipeline to Phoenix.

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Related

City of Phoenix v. West Publishing Co.
712 P.2d 944 (Court of Appeals of Arizona, 1985)

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Bluebook (online)
645 P.2d 1251, 132 Ariz. 337, 1982 Ariz. App. LEXIS 426, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/salt-river-project-agricultural-improvement-power-district-v-city-of-arizctapp-1982.