Southern LNG Inc. v. MacGinnitie

On remand, the trial court must address questions regarding whether county tax appeals constitute an adequate alternative remedy precluding the plaintiff's mandamus claim seeking to compel the State Revenue Commissioner to recognize the plaintiff as a "public utility" and to accept its ad valorem property tax returns.

Thank you for sharing!

Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

This is the second appearance of this case in this Court. In Southern LNG, Inc. v. MacGinnitie, 290 Ga. 204 719 SE2d 473 2011 Southern I, we reversed the Fulton County Superior Court’s dismissal, on the ground of sovereign immunity, of Southern LNG, Inc.’s complaint for declaratory judgment and mandamus, which sought to compel State Revenue Commissioner MacGinnitie to recognize Southern as a “public utility” and to accept Southern’s ad valorem property tax returns pursuant to OCGA §§ 48-1-2 21 and 48-5-511 a. On remand, the trial court granted summary judgment to the Commissioner on the mandamus claim, on the ground that Southern has an adequate alternative remedy in the form of tax appeals brought under OCGA § 48-5-311. The court said that Southern could raise, and has raised, its statutory claim that it is a public utility required to return its property to the Commissioner rather than to Chatham County in appeals of the county’s tax assessments to the county board of equalization and then to the Chatham County Superior Court.

As explained below, the trial court’s analysis was incomplete. To preclude mandamus, an alternative legal remedy must be ” ‘equally convenient, complete and beneficial’ ” to the petitioner. North Fulton Med. Ctr., Inc. v. Roach, 265 Ga. 125, 127-128 453 SE2d 463 1995 citation omitted. The record as developed thus far contains little information about the Chatham County tax appeals, but it is undisputed that the Commissioner is not currently a party to those actions. As a nonparty, the Commissioner normally would not be legally bound by any ruling there on the statutory issue that Southern has raised; indeed, even an appellate court ruling in those cases would not formally and enforceably bind the nonparty Commissioner. Thus, the Chatham County tax appeals, as currently constituted, appear not to provide Southern with an adequate alternative to mandamus.

Southern LNG Inc. v. MacGinnitie

Share with Email

Thank you for sharing!

Trending Stories

More From ALM

Subscribe to Daily Report