Workers' Compensation Agency Director v. MacDonald's Industrial Products, Inc.

853 N.W.2d 467, 305 Mich. App. 460
CourtMichigan Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 27, 2014
DocketDocket No. 311184
StatusPublished
Cited by52 cases

This text of 853 N.W.2d 467 (Workers' Compensation Agency Director v. MacDonald's Industrial Products, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Workers' Compensation Agency Director v. MacDonald's Industrial Products, Inc., 853 N.W.2d 467, 305 Mich. App. 460 (Mich. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Thomas E. Woods, receiver of defendant MacDonald’s Industrial Products, Inc., appeals as of right the circuit court’s order denying in part Woods’s motion to recover property taxes that Woods paid to intervening appellees, the city of Kentwood (Kentwood) and Kent County. We affirm.

[463]*463I. FACTS

A. EXEMPTION CERTIFICATES

MacDonald’s was an automotive parts supplier. In 1999, the State Tax Commission (the Commission) issued MacDonald’s an industrial facilities exemption certificate for its facility located on 44th Street in Kentwood. In pertinent part, the certificate exempted MacDonald’s from certain real and personal property taxes from December 30, 1999, to December 30, 2007, and permitted it to instead pay a lower tax known as the industrial facilities tax.1 The Commission conditioned the exemption certificate on MacDonald’s creating and retaining jobs at its 44th Street property, and the certificate was subject to revocation if the jobs were not created or maintained. In 2004, the Commission issued MacDonald’s a second certificate, under substantially similar conditions, that was to run from December 31, 2004, to December 30, 2005.

MacDonald’s ceased operations in 2006. In October 2006, Kentwood requested that the Commission revoke the exemption certificates. In a letter dated December 1, 2006, the Department of Treasury notified MacDonald’s that the Commission had revoked its certificates at a meeting held on November 29, 2006, and that if MacDonald’s did not request a hearing on the matter, the Commission would issue an order revoking its certificates, effective December 30,2006. MacDonald’s did not request a hearing, and the Commission issued an order on February 5, 2007, informing MacDonald’s that its certificates had been revoked, effective December 30, 2006.

B. SALE OF THE PROPERTIES

On August 22, 2007, at the request of the Workers’ [464]*464Compensation Agency, the circuit court appointed Woods as receiver of MacDonald’s business and property. In March 2008, Woods sought permission to sell MacDonald’s property on Oak Industrial Drive in Grand Rapids. The circuit court granted him permission to sell the property free and clear of mortgages, liens, and other encumbrances, but required him to pay “all outstanding property tax liabilities.” Woods sold the property and paid the property’s unpaid property taxes, interest, and penalties out of the proceeds of the sale.

In March 2011, Woods sought permission to sell MacDonald’s 44th Street property. The circuit court’s order permitted him to sell the property free and clear of mortgages, liens, and other encumbrances, but required him to pay the property’s “real property taxes” and escrow “[statutory interest, fees and penalties.” Woods sold the property in compliance with the order.

C. MOTION TO RECOVER ASSETS

On October 10, 2011, Woods moved to recover assets of the receivership and distribute proceeds. In parts pertinent to this appeal, Woods asserted that (1) Kentwood and Kent County had impermissibly included interest and penalties in the tax liens and (2) the Commission had improperly revoked MacDonald’s exemption certificates. The circuit court denied Woods’s motion in part, concluding that (1) Woods was not entitled to reimbursement because the tax liens in 2006 and summer 2007 included the interest and penalties and were perfected before he possessed the property and (2) the Commission could retroactively revoke the exemption certificates.

[465]*465II. THE TAX LIENS

A. STANDARD OF REVIEW

This Court reviews de novo questions of law, including questions involving the statutory priority of payments involved in a receivership.2 We review de novo questions of statutory interpretation.3 We review for clear error a circuit court’s factual findings and review de novo its legal conclusions.4

B. LEGAL STANDARDS

MCL 211.44(3) authorizes localities to add late penalty charges, administration fees, and interest to uncollected taxes. MCL 211.40 provides that unpaid taxes become liens:

The amounts assessed for state, county, village, or township taxes on any interest in real property shall become a hen on the real property on December 1, on a day provided for by the charter of a city or village, or on the day provided for in [MCL 211.40a]. The hen for those amounts, and for ah interest and charges on those amounts, shah continue until paid.

Concerning summer taxes, MCL 211.44a similarly provides that “Maxes authorized to be collected shall become a lien against the property on which assessed” on July l.5

C. PENALTIES AND INTEREST

Woods contends that the first sentence in the portion of MCL 211.40 quoted above creates a lien for property [466]*466taxes but does not create a lien for penalties and interest and that the second sentence quoted does not actually create any liens but merely provides that liens on interest and charges will continue until paid. We cannot adopt Woods’s reading of this statute.

When interpreting a statute, our goal is to give effect to the intent of the Legislature.6 The language of the statute is the primary indication of the Legislature’s intent.7 If the language of the statute is unambiguous, we must enforce it as written.8 This Court reads the provisions of statutes “reasonably and in context.”9 We will not expand the scope of a tax law through forced construction, and we construe doubtful tax laws in favor of the taxpayer.10

As already stated, the plain language of MCL 211.40 provides that

[t]he amounts assessed for state, county, village, or township taxes on any interest in real property shall become a lien on the real property on December 1, on a day provided for by the charter of a city or village, or on the day provided for in [MCL 211.40a], The lien for those amounts, and for all interest and charges on those amounts, shall continue until paid.[11]

Considering the provisions of this statute reasonably and in context, we conclude that the lien that the statute creates in the first sentence quoted includes the amounts, interest, and charges in the lien that it mentions “shall [467]*467continue” in the second sentence. Woods’s proposed interpretation of the statute — that the Legislature meant to continue a lien for interest and charges that it had not actually created — is not reasonable. Beading the sentences together, the only reasonable interpretation is that the Legislature meant to indicate that interest and charges are included, along with amounts assessed, in the hen that it created. We conclude that the plain meaning of MCL 211.40 is that the amount assessed, including interest and charges, is part of the hen against a property on which taxes remain unpaid.

D. 2006 AND 2007 TAX LIENS BEFORE WOODS’S APPOINTMENT

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
853 N.W.2d 467, 305 Mich. App. 460, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/workers-compensation-agency-director-v-macdonalds-industrial-products-michctapp-2014.