Title: State v. Lane Bryant, Inc.
Citation: 171 So. 2d 91
Docket Number: N/A
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: January 21, 1965

171 So. 2d 91 (1965)
STATE of Alabama
v.
LANE BRYANT, INC.
3 Div. 148.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
January 21, 1965.
Richmond M. Flowers, Atty. Gen., Willard W. Livingston and Herbert I. Burson, Jr., Asst. Attys. Gen., for appellant.
M. R. Nachman, Jr., Steiner, Crum &amp; Baker, Montgomery, for appellee.
HARWOOD, Justice.
This is an appeal from a decree of the Circuit Court of Montgomery County in Equity, adjudging a final use tax assessment made by the State Department of Revenue against Lane Bryant, Inc., in the amount of $27,732.95, to be illegal and void, and setting aside and holding for naught the said final assessment.
No questions are raised as to the perfection of the appeal from the final assessment to the Circuit Court and the cause was there submitted upon Lane Bryant's bill in the nature of a bill of complaint, the Department of Revenue's answer, and a stipulation of facts.
The Department of Revenue contends that the final assessment was authorized by the provisions of Sections 790 and 792, Title 51, Code of Alabama 1940, and particularly by Subsection (d) of each Section. These code sections in pertinent parts read:
"§ 790. Every seller engaged in making retail sales of tangible personal property for storage, use or other consumption in this state, who: (a) Maintains a place of business, (b) qualified to do business, (c) solicits and receives purchases or orders by agent or salesman, or (d) distributes catalogs or *92 other advertising matter and by reason thereof receives and accepts orders from residents, within the state of Alabama. * * *
The stipulation of facts show that Lane Bryant is a Delaware Corporation having its principal place of business in New York, New York. It also conducts a mail order business from headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana. It has never qualified to do business in Alabama or appointed an agent for service of process in Alabama.
Lane Bryant does no business in Alabama through agents, independent contractors, or otherwise and its sole business connection with this state is that it mails catalogs to Alabama residents from outside the state, and mails from Indianapolis any merchandise that may be ordered by Alabama residents. No delivery of such ordered merchandise is made by truck or common carrier.
Lane Bryant catalogs are printed in New Jersey, and are then mailed from New Jersey by United States mail throughout the United States, including Alabama, though occasionally the catalog may be mailed by Lane Bryant from Indianapolis when an individual writes directly to Lane Bryant requesting such catalog.
All orders from customers are processed in and mailed from Indianapolis. No merchandise is purchased or delivered in any other way than by use of the United States mails. Payment from Alabama residents is either made by check sent by the customer by mail to Lane Bryant at Indianapolis, or by C.O.D. orders made to the postal authorities in Alabama when merchandise is delivered in this state. Payment for merchandise purchased by residents of Alabama is never made to Lane Bryant in Alabama nor to any agents, salesmen, or representative of Lane Bryant in Alabama.
Lane Bryant has never engaged in any radio or television advertising directed to Alabama, and it has never advertised in any newspaper published in this state. Further, it has never owned, leased, or maintained, any office, store, branch, or place of business in Alabama, nor has it ever repossessed by legal proceedings any merchandise sold to Alabama residents. It has never had any telephone listing or bank account in this state.
Lane Bryant has never sold, or solicited or promoted sales by, or received purchases or orders from any employee, agent, salesman, or other person, firm, or corporation in Alabama.
In its decree the lower court entered a findings of fact consonant with the above stipulated facts.
The decree of the lower court after its findings of fact then continues:
"The Department, though relying on the provisions of Title 51, Sections 790 *93 and 792 in its attempt to make a use tax collector out of Lane Bryant, has conceded that Lane Bryant maintains no place of business in Alabama; has not qualified to do business in Alabama; and does not solicit or receive purchases or orders by agent or salesman, or, indeed, by independent contractor within the State of Alabama. The Department relies solely on subdivision (d) of those two sections which purport to impose obligations on `every seller engaged in making retail sales of tangible personal property for storage, use or other consumption in this State who: * * * distributes catalogs or other advertising matter and by reason thereof receives and accepts orders from residents, within the State of Alabama.' The Department contends that the mailing by Lane Bryant, from a City outside the State of Alabama, of a catalogue addressed to a resident of Alabama, followed by the receipt by Lane Bryant, in Indianapolis, Indiana, of an order from a resident of Alabama, brings Lane Bryant within the scope of subdivision (d).
"Quite apart from the constitutional barriers, it is inconceivable, moreover, that the legislature sought to make an out-of-state business contribute to the *94 support of the Government of Alabama when that business concern had no property, agent or independent contractor in Alabama and when the business received no protection or benefit whatever from any aspect of the government of the State of Alabama or any of its subdivisions. Surely such a strained construction of legislative intent should not be read into the statute with all of the concomitant contitutional infirmities inherent in such an interpretation.
"As General Trading, supra, 322 U.S. 335, 338 [64 S. Ct. 1028] and Scripto v. Carson, supra, 362 U.S. 207 at 212 [80 S. Ct. 619] take pains to point out, `no state can tax the privilege *95 of doing interstate business (citation). That is within the protection of the Commerce Clause and subject to the power of Congress.'
After careful consideration of the above decree and the briefs and arguments of respective counsel, we are convinced that the decree is correct in every respect and that any addition thereto by us would be redundant. We therefore adopt the opinion of the lower court as the decree of this court.
Affirmed.
LIVINGSTON, C. J., and SIMPSON and MERRILL, JJ., concur.