State v. Giffordhill & Co.

428 S.W.2d 451
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 1, 1968
DocketNo. 11589
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 428 S.W.2d 451 (State v. Giffordhill & Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Giffordhill & Co., 428 S.W.2d 451 (Tex. Ct. App. 1968).

Opinion

O’QUINN, Justice.

In this lawsuit the State of Texas seeks to collect sales taxes on the cost of transporting materials from the seller’s plant to the buyer’s job site or other designated destination, in addition to taxes already paid on the price of the materials.

The principal issue is whether the sale took place when the materials left the seller’s plant or at the time of delivery to the buyer.

The trial court found in effect that all transportation occurred after the sale and held the seller was not liable for any of the taxes claimed.

From a judgment denying all relief, the State of Texas has appealed.

Gifford-Hill and Company, Inc., is a Texas corporation engaged in mining, producing, and selling sand and gravel and crushed stone called aggregate. The materials are mixed to certain standards as ordered by the customer at various plants operated by Gifford-Hill over the state. After receiving an order for materials, Gifford-Hill prepares the aggregate on the date specified at the plant nearest the location where the buyer will use it. Gifford-Hill does not own or operate trucks to haul aggregate. The materials sold are transported from the plant to the job site, or other destination, by the customer or by common carriers engaged by Gifford-Hill. Transportation charges of the common carrier usually are billed by Gifford-Hill to the buyer of the materials, and Gifford-Hill pays the carrier.

The record shows that Gifford-Hill collected and paid to the State all sales taxes on the quoted price of aggregate at the plant. This suit was brought for taxes on receipts by Gifford-Hill for transportation charges, following a deficiency determination by the state comptroller pursuant to provisions of Articles 20.06 and 20.08, Title 122A, Taxation-General, Vernon’s Ann.Civ. Sts. (As amended Acts 1961, 57th Leg., 1st C.S., p. 71, ch. 24, art. I, sec. 1; Acts 1963, 58th Leg., p. 371, ch. 138, sec. 1). The State’s claim is the sum of $15,232.31 for taxes, penalties and interest, and for foreclosure of statutory liens. The tax period involved in this suit began September 1, 1961, and ended June 30, 1964.

The State has assigned eight points of error, to which appellee has replied under three points.

The State contends under its points 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7 that the sales of materials took place when delivered to the buyer in accordance with contract of the parties. Ap-pellee rebuts this contention by its counter point that under the sales tax statutes there was a sale prior to transportation, when the materials were segregated at the seller’s plant in contemplation of transfer of title or possession.

Under its points 2, 5 and 6, the State urges that the seller and the buyer contracted that delivery would be to the buyer’s [453]*453job site and that transportation was a service offered by the seller and was a part of the total sales price, so that the sale occurred when the materials were actually delivered at the agreed site. Appellee replies that it contracted with its customers for a sale at the plant before transportation.

The State assigns error under its 8th point that appellee failed to discharge its statutory burden to show that the gross money receipts covering transportation did not come under the sales tax. Appellee contends it met the evidentiary burden required by statute.

Chapter 20 of Title 122A as amended is the “Limited Sales, Excise and Use Tax Act” of Texas. Under these statutes, “sale at retail” means “any sale of tangible personal property,” and a “sale”

“ * * * means and includes any transfer of title or possession, or segregation in contemplation of transfer of title or possession, exchange, barter, lease or rental, conditional or otherwise, in any manner or by any means whatsoever, of tangible personal property for a consideration.” Article 20.01, subdivs. (I) (1) and (K) (1).

A “purchase” is defined as:

“Any transfer of title or possession, exchange, barter, lease or rental, conditional or otherwise, in any manner or by any means whatsoever, of tangible property for a consideration.” Article 20.01, sub-div. (G) (1).

Chapter 20 provides that money received in payment of charges for transportation prior to a sale to the purchaser is taxable. Article 20.01, subdivs. (D) (1) (c) and (L) (1) (c). But money received by the seller for transportation occurring after a sale is not taxable. Article 20.01, subdivs. (D) (2) (g) and (L) (3) (g). Stated another way, the statutes provide that “receipts” and “sales price” as defined will not allow deduction on account of “ * * * cost of transportation of the tangible personal property prior to its sale or purchase.” But “receipts” and “sale price” do not include “Charges for transportation * * * after sale.”

The State urges that the controlling issue, stated in the context of these statutory provisions, is whether the sales of materials by Gifford-Hill occurred before or after the incident of transportation from the seller’s plant to the purchaser’s job site. The State’s position is that by construing the statutes together, the sales by Gifford-Hill occurred when delivery was made at the job site and not at the plant when the materials were segregated and placed with a common carrier for transportation to the destination designated by the purchaser.

Gifford-Hill contends that the sales were completed when the materials were segregated at the plant “in contemplation of transfer of title or possession.” Under this contention Gifford-Hill points to Article 20.01 (K) (1) in which a sale is defined as “ * * * any transfer of title or possession, or segregation in contemplation of transfer of title or possession * * * ” (Emphasis added).

The State insists that this definition of sale must be construed with subdivision (G) (1) which defines a purchase as “ * * * any transfer of title or possession * * * in any manner or by any means whatsoever * * * ” and from which definition is omitted any reference to segregation in contemplation of transfer of title or possession. The State construes these two subdivisions to provide that “segregation in contemplation of transfer of title or possession” as used in subdivision (K) (1) can qualify as a sale only when the segregation is accompanied by transfer of title or possession required in subdivision (G) (1) relative to purchase.

The State submits that this construction finds support in subdivision (K) (1) defining a sale in the three alternatives of “(1) any transfer of title, (2) [any transfer of] possession, or (3) segregation in contemplation of transfer of title or possession.”

[454]*454In these three alternatives, the State suggests, this definition was “provided to cover any particular situation which the parties have designated as a sale. This statute, by its very alternatives, does not attempt to declare, contrary to a contract, when a sale has occurred.”

The State contends that the statute should be interpreted as declaring that the one of its stated events which the parties contracted for as incurring the obligation of a sale is the taxable event. “ * * * the vendor certainly cannot by its own unilateral act,” the State urges, “contrary to the intent and terms of the purchase contract, effect a statutory sale by a mere segregation of the property in contemplation of a transfer of its title or possession.”

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428 S.W.2d 451, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-giffordhill-co-texapp-1968.