Woodman v. Director of Revenue

8 S.W.3d 154, 1999 Mo. App. LEXIS 2320, 1999 WL 1071737
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 30, 1999
DocketNo. 56326
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 8 S.W.3d 154 (Woodman v. Director of Revenue) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Woodman v. Director of Revenue, 8 S.W.3d 154, 1999 Mo. App. LEXIS 2320, 1999 WL 1071737 (Mo. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

HAROLD L. LOWENSTEIN, Judge.

Appellant Dolph Woodman appeals the Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law of the Administrative Hearing Commission (AHC) holding him hable to the respondent for $29,247 in tax and penalties for willfully faihng to collect and pay employer withholding tax pursuant to § 143.751.4, RSMo 1994.1 The respondent is the Missouri Director of Revenue (Director), to whom the withholding tax returns and payments were due. Woodman made this appeal after filing a Motion for Reconsideration with the Administrative Hearing Commission. At issue is whether this appeal was timely filed and if so, whether this court has jurisdiction to entertain the appeal.

Appellant Woodman was the founder, president and sole officer of Woodman Construction, Inc. (hereinafter the “corporation”), a commercial construction busi[156]*156ness which began operating in the Branson area in February 1991. In December 1991, Woodman hired Betty Kagel as a bookkeeper. Woodman delegated to Ka-gel responsibility for general office management and all bookkeeping and payroll duties, including filing and paying tax returns.

Woodman terminated the employment of Kagel in August 1994. Sometime later, an accountant audited the corporation’s books. The audit disclosed that Kagel had embezzled substantial amounts of money from the corporation, had attempted to conceal this conduct by altering the corporation’s books, and had not filed the appropriate state payroll tax returns or paid the payroll taxes.

On September 8, 1994, Director issued an estimated notice of tax deficiency for March 1994, requesting the corporation to submit payment. Similar notices were issued on September 29, 1994, November 3, 1994, and December 8, 1994, for the periods of April 1994, May 1994, and June 1994, respectively. After these notifications of tax delinquencies, Woodman and the corporation continued to work on existing construction contracts, pay wages to employees, pay current accounts payable, and make payments to the IRS for other tax delinquencies.

After giving all appropriate notification to Woodman, the final decisions of the Director were as follows. On January 19, 1996, the Director issued a final decision, citing §§ 143.241 and 143.751, and assessing Woodman personally responsible for $27,956.42 in unpaid employer withholding tax. On August 29, 1997, the Director issued a final decision assessing Woodman $29,247 in penalties under § 143.751.4.

Woodman appealed the Director’s final decisions to the Administrative Hearing Commission (the Commission). The matter was heard on November 25, 1997. On July 2, 1998, the Commission entered its Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, holding that Woodman was not a responsible party under § 143.241 but was responsible for the $29,247 assessed under § 143.751. On August 3, 1998, Woodman filed a Motion for Reconsideration with the Commission. On August 6,1998, the Commission issued a Memorandum and Order stating that it no longer had jurisdiction to consider Woodman’s Motion for Reconsideration because the 30-day time period for appeal had expired. On September 8, 1998, Woodman filed a petition for review with this court. On appeal, both parties address the question of the timeliness of this petition for review.

I.

Respondent contends the Commission has no jurisdiction to entertain motions for reconsideration and that Appellant’s only course of action would have been to appeal directly to this court within 30 days of the Commission’s Findings and Conclusions, an action that Appellant admittedly failed to take. This court now determines that while there is in fact no jurisdiction to entertain this appeal, Respondent’s assertions as to Appellant’s options for appeal do not comport with the applicable statutes or caselaw.

A.

It is Respondent’s first assertion that the Commission has no authority to consider motions for reconsideration. In State ex rel. Marler v. State Bd. of Optometry, 898 S.W.2d 559, 563 (Mo.App.1994), this court recognized the Western District’s inconsistent caselaw on the subject. The court wrote:

This court has issued conflicting opinions concerning an administrative agency’s authority to modify its findings of fact and conclusions of law. In Sheets v. Labor and Industrial Relations Commission, 622 S.W.2d 391, 394 (Mo.App.1981), we held that the agency could not modify its findings and conclusions once “reached and imparted to the litigants[.]” In Eleven Star, Inc. v. Director of Revenue, 764 S.W.2d 521, 522 [157]*157(Mo.App.1989), and Dillon, d/b/a Home Satellite Systems v. Director of Revenue, 111 S.W.2d 326 (Mo.App.1989), we held that an agency could modify its decision within 30 days after entering it.

Id. at 563. This court now follows the decisions in Eleven Star and Dillon. The rationale of Eleven Star has recently been followed by our Supreme Court in Farmer v. Barlow Truck Lines, Inc., 979 S.W.2d 169, 170-171 (Mo. banc 1998).

Eleven Star involved the power of the Commission to set aside an order of dismissal previously entered by it. The court there held that an administrative body has the inherent authority to set aside a dismissal it has entered. Eleven Star, 764 S.W.2d at 522. Additionally, in Dillon, this court held the decision in Eleven Star required the assumption that the Commission has jurisdiction to rale on after-trial motions to reconsider. Dillon, 777 S.W.2d at 329. In light of this caselaw, the Commission here had the power to hear Appellant Woodman’s motion for reconsideration.

It next must be determined whether Appellant’s motion for reconsideration was timely filed with the AHC. After determining the Commission had the power to set aside dismissals, the Eleven Star court discussed the time limit within which to make such a set aside in light of § 621.189, the statute governing appeals from the Commission to a court of appeals. Section 621.189 requires a petition for review to an appeals court to be filed “within thirty days after the mailing or delivery of the final decision and notice thereof in such a case.”2 The Eleven Star court wrote that a party filing an after-trial motion with the Commission must do so within the same 30-day time limit set for appeal to this court in § 621.189. Eleven Star, 764 S.W.2d at 522. In other words, Woodman must have filed his motion with the AHC “within thirty days after the mailing or delivery of the final decision.”

The AHC issued its Findings and Conclusions on July 2, 1998. Both parties attempt to measure the 30-day time frame thereafter by using the Rules of Civil Procedure, particularly Rule 44.01(a), which would calculate the last day to file as August 3, 1998. However, as this court noted in AT & T Information Systems, Inc. v. Wallemann, 827 S.W.2d 217

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Bluebook (online)
8 S.W.3d 154, 1999 Mo. App. LEXIS 2320, 1999 WL 1071737, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/woodman-v-director-of-revenue-moctapp-1999.