Crane Const. Co. v. Symons Clamp & Mfg. Co.
| Decision Date | 28 September 1962 |
| Docket Number | No. 37233,37233 |
| Parties | CRANE CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, Appellee, v. SYMONS CLAMP & MANUFACTURING COMPANY et al. (Theodore J. Isaacs, Director of Revenue, et al., Appellants.) |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
William G. Clark, Atty. Gen., Springfield , for appellants.
Perlman, Hecht & Chesler, Michael M. Phillips, Chicago (Michael M. Phillips, Philip R. Toomin, Chicago, of counsel), for appellee.
This is an appeal from a decree of the circuit court of Cook County holding unconstitutional and invalid certain amendments to the Retailers' Occupation Tax Act and Use Tax Act and ordering the refund of certain moneys paid under protest, and also holding unconstitutional and inapplicable a 1961 amendment to the Protest Fund Act. The appeal is taken directly to this court, since both constitutional questions and the public revenue are involved.
The amendments to the Retailers' Occupation Tax Act and Use Tax Act, which were designed to make such acts applicable to lease transactions as well as to sales, are the same amendments as are involved in the related case of International Business Machines Corp. v. Department of Revenue, Ill., 185 N.E.2d 257, and the two cases were consolidated for oral argument in this court. Since the present case arose by a somewhat different procedural route and involves certain questions not involved in the International Business Machines Corp. case, we have deemed it best to render separate opinions in the two cases.
The plaintiff, Crane Construction Company, is engaged in the business in Illinois of building and contracting and, in connection with that business, it leases from Symons Clamp & Manufacturing Company forms and framing material equipment. No question is raised that these are bona fide leases, and prior to September 1, 1961, plaintiff was admittedly not subject to use tax with respect to such leased property. After that date, however, under the 1961 amendments as interpreted by the Department of Revenue, the lessor, Symons Clamp & Manufacturing Company, would be required to collect use tax from Crane and to remit retailers' occupation tax to the Department with respect to such lease transactions.
On November 8, 1961, plaintiff filed a complaint in chancery against its lessor, Symons Clamp & Manufacturing Company, joining as defendants the present appellants, the Director of Revenue, the State Treasurer, and the Attorney General. The complaint challenged the validity of the 1961 amendments and alleged that, unless equitable relief were granted, plaintiff and other similarly situated customers of Symons would be required to pay use tax to Symons under duress, and that, unless restrained, it feared that the lessor would forward the amounts of tax so received to the Department of Revenue without making such payments under protest and without protecting the rights of plaintiff and other members of its class. On November 10, 1961, the trial court entered an order for a temporary injunction, enjoining Symons from paying any tax based on the rental of personal property, other than by paying such tax under protest, requiring the Director of Revenue to notify the State Treasurer of such payment under protest, and enjoining the State Treasurer from paying the receipts of any such taxes paid under protest into any fund other than the protest fund until the further order of the court. On February 15, 1962, the Director of Revenue, State Treasurer, and Attorney General made a motion for the dissolution of the temporary injunction and the discharge of moneys from the protest fund on the ground that no claim for credit had been filed with the Department of Revenue within 60 days after the temporary injunction as allegedly required by section 2a of an act relating to the payment and disposition of monies received for and in behalf of the State of Illinois, hereinafter referred to for convenience as the Protest Fund Act. (Ill.Rev.Stat.1961, chap. 127, par. 172.) In its final decree, entered April 2, 1962, the court overruled this motion, holding the 1961 amendment to the Protest Fund Act unconstitutional as an attempt to deprive the circuit court of its constitutional original jurisdiction in equity cases. The court also held unconstitutional the 1961 amendments to the Retailers' Occupation and Use Tax Acts extending these taxes to leases, enjoined the enforcement of such taxes against plaintiff and others of its class, and ordered the State Treasurer to turn over the sums paid under protest by Symons to the trustee to be appointed by the court, with the court retaining jurisdiction to carry out the terms of the decree for the benefit of the members of the class of lessees for whose benefit the plaintiff prosecuted the suit.
In the case of International Business Machines Corp. v. Department of Revenue, we have held that the 1961 amendment to the Retailers' Occupation Tax Act is unconstitutional and void, and that the companion amendment to the Use Tax Act is ineffective. Our decision in that case is decisive of the substantive merits of this case, unless, as urged by appellants, we should reverse the trial court on a procedural point without reaching the substantive merits. By act approved July 25, 1961, the General Assembly amended section 2a of the Protest Fund Act (Ill.Rev.Stat.1961, chap. 127, par. 172) by adding thereto the following paragraph:
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Kean v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
...N.E.2d 344 (1989); Hagerty v. General Motors Corp., 59 Ill.2d 52, 55, 319 N.E.2d 5 (1974); Crane Construction Co. v. Symons Clamp & Manufacturing Co., 25 Ill.2d 521, 527, 185 N.E.2d 139 (1962); see also Weber-Stephen Products, Inc. v. Department of Revenue, 324 Ill.App.3d 893, 898, 258 Ill.......
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Village of Arlington Heights v. Regional Transp. Authority
...Commission, 52 Ill.App.3d 167, 172, 10 Ill.Dec. 14, 18, 367 N.E.2d 402, 406 (1977). 5 See also Crane Construction Co. v. Symons Clamp & Mfg. Co., 25 Ill.2d 521, 185 N.E.2d 139 (1962). It is clear in the case at bar that the individual plaintiffs, who ultimately bear the burden of the tax, h......
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Commonwealth Edison Co. v. Community Unit School Dist. No. 200, DuPage County
...discrimination against the government and those with whom it deals. Similarly the Illinois Supreme Court in Crane Constr. Co. v. Symons Co., 25 Ill.2d 521, 185 N.E.2d 139 (1962) allowed a lessee to challenge the constitutionality of retailers' occupation tax although that tax was not levied......
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Jones v. Department of Revenue, 77-315
...retailers. Notwithstanding the lack of a statutory right to a refund, plaintiff, relying on Crane Construction Company v. Symons Clamp & Mfg. Co. (1962), 25 Ill.2d 521, 185 N.E.2d 139, and Williams v. City of Chicago (1976), 36 Ill.App.3d 216, 343 N.E.2d 539, rev'd on other grounds (1977), ......