W. C. Fore v. Mississippi Depar Tment of Re Venue
Decision Date | 22 March 2012 |
Docket Number | NO. 2010-CA-02098-SCT,2010-CA-02098-SCT |
Parties | W. C. FORE d/b/a W. C. FORE TRUCKING, INC. v. MISSISSIPPI DEPAR TMENT OF RE VENUE f/k/a MISSISSIPPI STATE TAX COMMISSION, MISSISSIPPI DEPAR TMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY, AND MISSISSIPPI COMMISSION ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY |
Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
BEFORE CARLSON, P.J., LAMAR AND CHANDLER, JJ.
¶1. After Hurricane Katrina hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast in August 2005, W. C. Fore1 entered into a contract with Harrison County, Mississippi, to remove the large amount ofdebris that was left behind. The Mississippi State Tax Commission (MSTC)2 then assessed a fee of $1.00 per ton of debris removed. Fore appealed the assessment to the MSTC Board of Review,3 claiming that the fee did not apply to emergency waste removal. The Board of Review upheld the assessment. Fore appealed the Board of Review's decision to the MSTC Full Commission,4 which also affirmed the assessment. Fore then appealed to the Harrison County Chancery Court, First Judicial District. The chancery court upheld the assessment, and Fore has now appealed to this Court. Finding that the MSTC's and chancery court's findings were supported by substantial evidence and that there was no misapprehension of the law, we affirm.
¶2. Following Hurricane Katrina's devastation of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the coastal counties faced the monumental task of cleaning up in the wake of the storm. Millions of pounds of debris - food waste, industrial and commercial waste, household goods, buildingand structural debris, vegetative debris, and hazardous substances - covered the counties hardest hit by the storm. On September 13, 2005, in response to this unprecedented event, Governor Haley Barbour issued a Resolution authorizing the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) to execute an Emergency Order that addressed various environmental concerns, including: wastewater treatment, air-pollution sources, solid-waste management, hazardous-waste management, asbestos, and underground storage tanks. The solid-waste management section of the order allowed for emergency waste-disposal sites for vegetative, building, and structural debris.5
¶3. Prior to the governor's resolution, Fore had entered into a contract with Harrison County for the removal of Hurricane Katrina debris at the price of $10.64 per cubic yard. The contract provided, in pertinent part:
¶4. After he entered into the contract with Harrison County, Fore requested that the county approve two sites for waste disposal: the Delancey site and LoBouy Road site. These requests stated, "W.C. Fore agrees to follow all DEQ rules, regulations[,] and law on this property." Harrison County then forwarded Fore's requests to the MDEQ and requested approval of the sites. The MDEQ approved both requests. Fore was approved to dispose of building, structural, vegetative, and household debris at the Delancey site and to dispose of vegetative debris at the LoBouy Road site.
¶5. After the MDEQ's approval, Fore began removing debris from the public rights-of-way in Harrison County. Fore also entered into an agreement with another contractor, Phillips and Jordan, Inc. (P&J), allowing P&J to use the Delancey site for disposal of hurricane debris that P&J collected in accordance with a contract it had with the City of Gulfport. Fore charged P&J either $1.00 per cubic yard or $1.50 per cubic yard, depending on the type of debris.
¶6. On February 8, 2006, the MDEQ sent a memorandum to the "Owners/Operators of Commercial Sites Used for Disposal of Wastes from Hurricane Katrina." The memorandum stated that the emergency sites used to dispose of hurricane debris were commercial disposalsites and were subject to the MDEQ reporting requirements for solid-waste disposal. A reporting form was attached to the memorandum. The memorandum provided:
Please note that the owner/operator of the commercial disposal site is also required to file a report with the Mississippi State Tax Commission before July 15, 2006 showing the total amounts of waste disposed at the facility during Calendar Year 2005 and shall at the same time pay a $1.00 per ton fee to the Tax Commission.
Fore completed the attached reporting forms and returned them to the MDEQ. For the Delancey site, Fore reported 291,012.08 cubic yards of debris. Using the MDEQ's conversion factor of 0.25 tons per cubic yard, Fore reported that he had disposed of 72,753.02 tons of waste at the Delancey site. On the LoBouy Road site reporting form, Fore reported that 136,870.50 cubic yards of hurricane debris had been disposed. Again, using the conversion factor of 0.25 tons per cubic yard, Fore reported that 34,217.63 tons of debris had been disposed of at the LoBouy Road site.
¶7. On May 19, 2006, the MSTC sent a letter to nonhazardous solid-waste management facilities, requesting that owners and operators of the facilities complete an annual reporting form. The letter stated that the reports should be filed in accordance with Mississippi Code Section 17-17-219 (Rev. 2009), and that a $1.00 per ton fee was imposed on municipal solid waste. The owners and operators of the sites were to file a report with the MSTC even if no fee was due. Fore returned reporting forms for both the Delancey and LoBouy Road sites. On the Delancey form, Fore reported that he had disposed of 298,964 tons6 of nonhazardoussolid waste. The form required the owners and operators to report the total tons of waste that were subject to a fee and the total fee due. Fore entered a zero for both on the Delancey form. On the LoBouy Road form, Fore reported that 34,218 tons of waste had been disposed and again entered zeros in the blanks for the total tons of waste that were subject to a fee and the total fee due.
¶8. In response to Fore's reports, the MSTC assessed a fee of $333,182 for both the Delancey and LoBouy Road sites. Because Fore did not attach payment to the reporting forms, the MSTC assessed interest and a penalty fee of $103,286.42. The total amount assessed was $436,468.42.
¶9. Fore appealed the assessment to the MSTC Board of Review, and the Board of Review affirmed the assessment. Fore then appealed to the Full Commission and presented the following arguments:
Fore also requested that the penalty and interest assessed by the MSTC be abated. The Full Commission found that the Delancey and LoBouy sites were commercial nonhazardous waste-management facilities and were subject to the $1.00-per-ton fee, that Fore was the operator of the entire Delancey site, and that the 0.25 conversion factor was correct. The Full Commission abated the penalty and interest and assessed a total fee of $333,182.
¶10. After paying the assessed fees under protest, Fore appealed the Full Commission's finding to the Chancery Court of Harrison County, First Judicial District. A trial de novo7 was held, and the chancellor entered a thirty-nine-page opinion and final judgment affirming the findings of the Full Commission. Fore has now appealed to this Court.
¶11. Generally, review of any administrative-agency decision is limited. Hinds County Sch. Dist. Bd. of Trs. v. R.B., 10 So. 3d 387, 394 (Miss. 2008). Ordinarily, the trial courts and appellate courts are "limited by the arbitrary and capricious standard" when reviewing an order or decision of state agency. Buelow v. Glidewell, 757...
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