Simons Petroleum, Inc. v. Falgout

874 So. 2d 847, 2004 WL 406066
Procedural entryThis page is a short order in Simons Petroleum, Inc. v. Falgout. Read the opinion of the Court — 873 So. 2d 65
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided March 4, 2004·No. 2003 CA 2600, 2003 CA 2601·Published

Opinion

874 So.2d 847 (2004)

SIMONS PETROLEUM, INC.
v.
Dane FALGOUT, Sales Tax Collector, for the Sales and Use Tax Department of the Pointe Coupee Parish Police Jury
Pointe Coupee Parish Police Jury Through its Sales and Use Tax Department
v.
Simons Petroleum, Inc.

No. 2003 CA 2600, 2003 CA 2601.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

March 4, 2004.

*848 Robert R. Ranier, Frederick Mulhearn, Baton Rouge, Counsel for Plaintiff/Appellee Pointe Coupee Parish Police Jury through its Sales and Use Tax Department.

Stephen H. Myers, Richard H. Morgan, Lafayette, Counsel for Defendant/Appellant Simons Petroleum, Inc.

Before: WHIPPLE, KUHN, and McDONALD, JJ.

KUHN, J.

Appellant-taxpayer, Simons Petroleum, Inc. (Simons Petro), appeals the trial court's judgment, denying its exceptions and enjoining the taxpayer from further pursuit of business until payment of delinquent taxes to appellee-tax collector, Pointe Coupee Parish Police Jury through its Sales Tax Department (Pointe Coupee Parish). We affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Simons Petro was notified in a formal assessment letter that it owed Pointe Coupee Parish unpaid sales tax, interest, and penalties in the amount of $86,135.50 for January 1, 1997 through March 31, 1999. The taxpayer remitted the assessed amount under protest and filed a lawsuit for its recovery. Along with its answer to the lawsuit, Point Coupee Parish filed a reconventional demand seeking, among other things, additional taxes based on allegations that the amount the tax collector had formally assessed Simons Petro incorrectly calculated the tax at a lower than the full parish-wide sales tax rate for which the taxpayer was liable.

On October 15, 2002, the trial court signed a judgment in favor of Pointe Coupee Parish, expressly dismissing Simons Petro's lawsuit and affirming the tax collector's entitlement to the assessed amount that the taxpayer had paid under protest. The judgment also granted the tax collector the requested relief on the reconventional demand, awarding additional sales taxes of $18,080.42 plus interest, which represented the difference between the assessed amount Simons Petro paid under protest and the total amount of sales taxes owed by the taxpayer. Simons Petro devolutively appealed that judgment, which was recently affirmed by this court. See Simons Petroleum, Inc. v. Falgout, XXXX-XXXX (La.App. 1st Cir.2/23/04), 873 So.2d 65.

Subsequent to the trial court's rendition of judgment, Pointe Coupee Parish instituted this action by filing a rule to show cause, seeking to enjoin Simons Petro from further pursuit of its business until the taxpayer paid the outstanding delinquent sales taxes in the amount of $18,080.42, plus interest, as determined by the trial court in its October 15, 2002 judgment. Simons Petro answered the rule and filed various exceptions.

After a hearing, the trial court denied all the exceptions and rendered judgment in favor of Pointe Coupee Parish, enjoining Simons Petro "from the further pursuit of business until ... it has paid to [the tax collector] delinquent [sales] taxes in the *849 amount of $18,080.42 plus applicable interest, as shown in the judgment signed on October 15, 2002 ... or until reversal of said judgment." Simons Petro appeals, urging the trial court was erroneous in denying its exceptions.

RULE TO CEASE BUSINESS

According to La. R.S. 33:2841:

A political corporation may through the officer whose duty it is to receive and collect the taxes and moneys due the corporation, enforce the collection of any taxes due to it, within the time and in the manner provided for the collection of taxes due to the state.

Relying on Section 40 of the Pointe Coupee School Board Sales and Use Tax Ordinance (Section 40), which the taxpayer does not dispute was enacted pursuant to La. R.S. 33:2841, Point Coupee Parish claims entitlement to enjoin Simons Petro from further pursuit of business until the delinquent tax is paid.[1] Section 40 states:

Failure to pay the Tax as provided in this Ordinance shall ipso facto, without demand or putting in default, cause the tax, interest, penalties, and costs to become immediately delinquent, and the Tax Collector has the authority, on motion in a court of competent jurisdiction, to take a rule on the [taxpayer], to show cause in not less than two or more than ten days, exclusive of holidays, why the [taxpayer] should not be ordered to cease from further pursuit of business.... This rule may be tried out of term and in chambers, and shall always be tried by preference. If the rule is made absolute, the order rendered thereon shall be considered a judgment in favor of the Tax Collector, prohibiting the [taxpayer] from the further pursuit of said business until such time as he has paid the delinquent tax, interest, penalties and costs, and every violation of the injunction shall be considered as a contempt of court, and punished according to law.

See also La. R.S. 47:314 (permitting the State to enjoin taxpayers delinquent in payment of state sales taxes from further pursuit of business until payment) and La. R.S. 47:337.33 (expressly effective after date of enforcement of this sales tax, permitting political subdivisions to enjoin taxpayers delinquent in payment of local sales taxes from further pursuit of business until payment).

LIS PENDENS

According to La. C.C.P. art. 531:

When two or more suits are pending in a Louisiana court or courts on the same transaction or occurrence, between the same parties in the same capacities, the defendant may have all but the first suit dismissed ....

Simons Petro urges that Pointe Coupee Parish's pleading seeking to enjoin the taxpayer from the further pursuit of *850 business is actually the same cause of action, involving the same parties, and seeking the same object, namely collection of $18,080.42 awarded to the tax collector in the October 15, 2002 judgment in addition to the taxes paid under protest. But the record establishes that the pleading, initially instituted as a separate action in a different division of the district court, was subsequently transferred to and prosecuted in the same proceeding which yielded the October 15, 2003 judgment. Simons Petro has not raised any contentions challenging the order of transfer. Because "two or more suits" are not pending, the trial court correctly denied the exception of lis pendens.

UNAUTHORIZED USE OF SUMMARY PROCEEDING

Summary proceedings may be used for trial or disposition of those matters in which the law permits summary proceedings to be used. See La. C.C.P. art. 2592(11).

Simons Petro contends that the Section 40 summary procedure may not be used after rendition of a judgment in favor of the tax collector obtained by the assessment and distraint procedure set forth in La. R.S. 47:1562-1573.

We find nothing in the "Assessment and Collection Procedures" of Part III of Chapter 18 of Title 47 of the Revised Statutes that limits the tax collector from initiating a summary proceeding in this case. Louisiana Revised Statute 47:1561 provides alternative remedies by which the tax collector may proceed to enforce the collection of any taxes due and states "the fact that the [tax] collector has initiated proceedings under the assessment and distraint procedure will not preclude him from thereafter proceeding by summary or ordinary court proceedings for the enforcement of the same tax obligation." And the plain language of La. R.S.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Simons Petroleum, Inc. v. Falgout, 874 So. 2d 847, 2004 WL 406066 (La. Ct. App. 2004).

874 So. 2d 847 (Simons Petroleum, Inc. v. Falgout) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Simons Petroleum, Inc. v. Falgout
873 So. 2d 65 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2004)