(DOWNLOAD) "American Trucking Ass'Ns v. Gray" by Supreme Court of Arkansas " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: American Trucking Ass'Ns v. Gray
- Author : Supreme Court of Arkansas
- Release Date : January 14, 1988
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 61 KB
Description
The appellants, American Trucking Associations, Inc., et al., (ATA) challenged the constitutionality of Act 685 of 1983, which instituted the Arkansas Highway Use Equalization Tax (HUE Tax), as a violation of the Commerce Clause. The Pulaski County Chancery Court upheld the tax, and we affirmed. American Trucking Associations, Inc. v. Gray, 288 Ark. 488, 707 S.W.2d 759 (1986). While the case was on certiorari, the Supreme Court decided American Trucking Associations, Inc. v. Scheiner, 483 U.S. 266, 107 S.Ct. 2829 (1987), invalidating a similar Pennsylvania tax. The Supreme Court vacated our judgment in the Gray case and remanded it to us for reconsideration in light of its decision in the Scheiner case. On August 14, 1987, the appellees, Henry C. Gray, Director of the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, et al., were ordered by Mr. Justice Blackmun, in his capacity as Circuit Justice, to place HUE tax receipts in an interest-bearing escrow. As directed, we now reconsider our prior decision of the case. In [295 Ark Page 45] addition to the basic question of the constitutionality of the act, we have been asked by the appellant class represented by ATA to decide whether and to what extent taxes collected pursuant to the act are to be refunded if the act is invalidated. We are also asked to determine whether counsel for ATA are entitled to court ordered attorney fees. We hold that the act is unconstitutional, the taxpayers represented by ATA are entitled to have refunded the taxes they have paid into the escrow fund, and the case is to be remanded to the chancery court to determine the manner of refund distribution and payment of attorney fees. 1. Unconstitutionality We need not set out the details of the HUE tax, as that was done in our earlier opinion in this case. Nor do we need to detail the Pennsylvania tax, which was held invalid in the Scheiner case, and the somewhat persuasive arguments about how the HUE tax differs significantly from the Pennsylvania tax. The important point to recognize is that, in the Scheiner case, the Supreme Court applied its ""internal consistency"" test and said, in effect, that if a state's tax treats truckers whose bases of operations are outside the state differently from those based in the taxing state, it violates the Commerce Clause. It is conceded that the HUE tax effectively costs other truckers more per mile than it costs those based in Arkansas, despite the option, which is available to all, to pay a flat rate or a per-mile rate or a trip rate. Therefore, we have little doubt that the Supreme Court would hold that the HUE tax is unconstitutional, and that is our holding.
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