Court Opinion

ID: 9660156
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 22:06:43.730126+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:16.067689
License: Public Domain

GRAVES, Justice,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in part and dissent in part. I dissent from so much of the opinion that limits the recovery to two years from the date of filing an application for tax refund as opposed to two years from the date of the filing of the suit. I take this position because limiting the period creates two classes and it is likely the more wealthy, better informed, and better publicly served class will receive refunds back to 1988. However, unsophisticated, intangible property owners, as described by Justice Wintersheimer during oral argument, will be limited to two years. The opinion will be perceived as giving greater protection of the law to those who can afford it. This will be perceived as a basic inequity that privileges the wealthy and penalizes the less fortunate. Also, all Kentucky taxpayers will be billed to repay a small privileged class.
If a private citizen had behaved in such a confiscatory manner in appropriating under color of a law a constitutionally challenged entitlement, he would be arrested for failure to make required disposition of property. The state should behave in the same manner it mandates that its citizens behave. The revenue department continued to impose a tax after it had notice of its questionable constitutionality and then argues that the burden for seeking a refund should rest with the victimized taxpayer. It is obvious that the Commonwealth is using its superior position of power to an unfair advantage because if someone does not file a claim the Commonwealth will be able to keep some of what it forcibly and illegally took.
The blind persistence of the Revenue Cabinet, even after the decision in Fulton Corp. v. Faulkner, 516 U.S. -, 116 S.Ct. 848, 133 L.Ed.2d 796 (1996), should not be rewarded. This matter should be remanded to the trial court for the determination of actual court costs and reasonable attorney fees. The period of refund should be extended until at least 1998. The two-year time limit as provided by the majority opinion is not the meaningful retroactive relief contemplated in McKesson Corp. v. Division of Alcoholic Beverages, 496 U.S. 18, 110 S.Ct. 2238, 110 L.Ed.2d 17 (1990). The taxpayers should have the right to file claims for refunds for taxes paid from July 26, 1988, through the date of judgment plus statutory interest.
WINTERSHEIMER, J., joins in this opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.
STUMBO, J., joins only as to the limitations on refunds.