Court Opinion

ID: 9582962
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:33:13.81833+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:38:47.974671
License: Public Domain

MESCHKE, Justice,
concurring.
I concur fully in the thoughtful opinion by Chief Justice Erickstad. I write separately only to observe that I am not overwhelmed by the reasonableness of the Tax Commissioner’s position in this case. The factual record here rather clearly demonstrated that the trackmobile was a “locomotive used in interstate commerce.”
By attempting to create a constitutional issue (by invoking the “taxable moment” doctrine peculiar to taxation in interstate commerce) where no constitutional issue existed in a straightforward matter of statutory interpretation, it seems to me at least questionable whether the Tax Commissioner acted with substantial justification. But, our North Dakota version of the “Equal Access to Justice” Act (See 5 U.S. C.A. Section 504, 15 U.S.C.A. Section 634(b), 28 U.S.C.A. Section 2412, and 42 U.S.C.A. Section 1988; Equal Access to Justice Act) is relatively new (S.L.1985, Ch. 357, Section 1, effective July 1, 1985), and would only apply to the appeal from the judgment of the district court, which was entered on September 10, 1985. This was barely two months past the effective date of this new statute which requires that an *468award of attorneys fees and costs must be made against an administrative agency which loses any civil judicial proceeding where the court “determines that the administrative agency acted without substantial justification.” Therefore, I resolve my doubts, about whether the Tax Commissioner acted without substantial justification'in seeking the strained interpretation of the exemption section at stake here, in favor of the agency in this instance.