Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/429/68/case.html
Timestamp: 2019-05-25 10:06:09
Document Index: 313487295

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1138', 'Art. 78', 'Art. 78', '§ 3001', '§ 1140', 'Art. 78']

TULLY V. GRIFFIN, INC., 429 U. S. 68 - Volume 429 - 1976 - Full Text - US Supreme Court Center - USSC Cases - Nolo
US Supreme Court Center > Volume 429 > TULLY V. GRIFFIN, INC., 429 U. S. 68 (1976) > Full Text
The question in this case is whether New York provides a "plain, speedy and efficient" remedy to an out-of-state
After Griffin again denied the tax examiner access to its records, the Department issued a "Notice of Determination and Demand for Payment of Sales and Use Taxes Due."
In reaching this conclusion, the federal court considered first the availability under New York law of direct review of the Notice of Determination. Under New York Tax Law § 1138(a), a taxpayer has 90 days from the receipt of a notice of determination to apply for a hearing before the Tax Commission. [Footnote 3] The Tax Commission's decision after the
hearing is judicially reviewable "for error, illegality or unconstitutionality or any other reason whatsoever" in a proceeding under Art. 78 of New York's Civil Practice Law and Rules. [Footnote 4] Before a taxpayer may seek Art. 78 review, however, he must either prepay or post a bond for the amount of the assessment. The court found that Griffin lacked the means to do this. Although the assessment was only a gross estimate, the court assumed that the amount would not be changed unless Griffin submitted to an audit. It ruled that Griffin should not be required to "tur[n] over its books and records to a state whose authority it claims is invalid," and
The District Court then considered the availability of declaratory relief under § 3001 of New York's Civil Practice Law and Rules. [Footnote 5] It viewed this possible avenue of relief as insufficiently "plain, speedy and efficient" because N.Y.Tax Law § 1140, on its face, seems to limit review of sales tax liability to the Art. 78 procedure discussed above. [Footnote 6] Although the court took note of substantial federal and New York case law holding that New York's administrative review proceedings are not, in fact, exclusive where a plaintiff claims that a tax is unconstitutional, the court concluded that the issue was "cloak[ed] . . . in some uncertainty." Even if Griffin could get declaratory relief, the court held, its contacts with New York were so "minimal" that "it seems unfair to make Griffin litigate in an unfamiliar forum." Finally, the court expressed "reservations" about Griffin's ability to get a preliminary injunction pending a New York court's decision in a declaratory judgment suit. 404 F.Supp. at 745-747. On the basis of this reasoning, the District Court granted Griffin preliminary injunctive relief.
These principles do not lose their force, and a State's remedy does not become "inefficient," merely because a taxpayer must travel across a state line in order to resist or challenge the taxes sought to be imposed. If New York provides an otherwise adequate remedy, the mere fact that Griffin must go to New York to invoke it does not jeopardize its ability to assert its rights. To accept the District Court's holding that it would be "unfair" to make Griffin litigate in
The correctness of that holding was placed squarely before us by the Jurisdictional Statement that the appellants filed in this Court in the Ammex case. This Court's affirmance of the District Court's judgment is therefore a controlling precedent, unless and until reexamined by this Court. Hicks v. Miranda, 422 U. S. 332, 422 U. S. 343-345. Since, however, it was a summary affirmance, it is not here "of the same precedential value as would be an opinion of this Court treating the question on the merits." Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U. S. 651, 415 U. S. 671. But having now had
The New York Attorney General in his brief and in oral argument has represented to this Court that Griffin can obtain a preliminary injunction in state court that will toll the running of the 90-day period within which Griffin may challenge the amount of the assessment at an administrative
Since New York provides a "plain, speedy and efficient" means for the redress of Griffin's constitutional claims, the
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