Opinion ID: 1656664
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Because the circumstances surrounding a letter written by Appellants remains unresolved and the Court failed to consider the financial condition of Appellants, whether genuine issues of material fact exist which should have precluded the chancellor's grant of summary judgment.

Text: ¶ 19. Appellants contend the chancellor failed to consider whether their financial condition in 2001 precluded them from proceeding under Section 27-7-73. Appellants argue that in spite of the plain language of their May 11, 2001 letter (The captioned taxpayers are not appealing the final Order of the Mississippi State Tax Commission ....) and their full payment of the tax assessment, which created finality in the Tax Commission's Order under Section 27-7-73, the chancellor should have intuited their surrounding circumstances (i.e. inability to obtain the appeal bond within thirty (30) days). This argument lacks merit. As Appellants failed to appeal or otherwise seek relief from the Tax Commission's Order within thirty (30) days of receiving notice, that Order became final and is non-appealable. Any attempt to circumvent that finality is barred under the doctrines of res judicata and collateral estoppel. See Smith, 797 So.2d at 963; Zimmerman, 747 So.2d at 861; Hood, 571 So.2d at 268. Therefore, no genuine issues of material fact exist, and Appellees are entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Hardy, 826 So.2d at 74 (quoting Robinson, 732 So.2d at 207).