Court Opinion

ID: 7841236
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-09-08 17:01:07.103924+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:04:29.995512
License: Public Domain

Shea, J.,
dissenting. I disagree with the conclusion reached by the majority that there is an insufficient “nexus” between the plaintiff and this state to justify, under the due process clause, the imposition of the duty to collect use taxes on transactions with customers in Connecticut. The fact that the plaintiff owns property in the form of training films in this state from which it receives rental fees of substantial sums is a sufficient relationship, as the commissioner contends. The protection of these films, like all property in this state, through the services of policemen and firemen is a benefit provided to the plaintiff by the state “for which it can ask return.” Wisconsin v. J. C. Penney Co., 311 U.S. 435, 444, 61 S. Ct. 246, 85 L. Ed. 267 (1940).
The reliance of the majority opinion on National Bellas Hess, Inc. v. Department of Revenue, 386 U.S. 753, 87 S. Ct. 1389, 18 L. Ed. 2d 505 (1967), is misplaced, because the court in that case expressly recognized the “sharp distinction . . . drawn between mail order sellers with retail outlets, solicitors, or property within a State, and those who do no more than communicate with customers in the State by mail or common carrier as part of a general interstate business.” (Emphasis added.) Id., 758. This plaintiff does more than communicate with Connecticut customers, because it owns property of substantial value in this state from which it receives rental payments on a continuing basis. This business activity of the plaintiff is plainly distinguishable from the mail order sales con*303sidered in National Bellas Hess, Inc., in which the seller’s interest in the item sold terminates on passage of title to the buyer.
Accordingly, I dissent.