[DOWNLOAD] "Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Washburn" by Supreme Court of Illinois # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Washburn
- Author : Supreme Court of Illinois
- Release Date : January 21, 1986
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 73 KB
Description
The plaintiffs, 14 foreign insurance companies licensed to do business in Illinois, made payments of privilege taxes under protest and then, in three separate but similar actions filed in the circuit court of Sangamon County, challenged the constitutionality of the tax. Named as defendants were the Director of the Department of Insurance, John Washburn, and the State Treasurer, James Donnewald. Relying on section 444.1(4) of the Illinois Insurance Code (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 73, par. 1056.1(4)), the defendants contended, however, that portions of the protested payments could be released from the protest fund into the State's general revenue fund; the sums sought to be transferred represented retaliatory taxes that could become due if the privilege tax provision were found to be invalid. The plaintiffs protested their liability for any sums under the alternative retaliatory provisions as well. The circuit court refused to allow the suggested transfers and entered preliminary injunctions requiring the defendants to maintain the entire protested privilege tax payments, and any further payments properly made under protest, in the protest fund. The defendants took interlocutory appeals from those orders, and we allowed their motions for a direct appeal to this court (103 Ill.2d R. 302(b)). Two of the actions had been consolidated in the circuit court, and they were consolidated in this court with the third action. The only issue presented by these interlocutory appeals concerns the scope and operation of section 444.1(4), which the defendants construe as requiring the release from the protest fund of that portion of the privilege tax payment equivalent to the alternative retaliatory tax. The procedural history of these cases may be reviewed briefly. The same counsel represented the plaintiffs in all three actions, and essentially the same course was followed in each. Cause No. 62513 is itself the consolidation of two actions. The first was brought on March 29, 1985, by Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, Metropolitan Insurance and Annuity Company, and Metropolitan Tower Life Insurance Company; the second action was brought on July 12, 1985, by New York Life Insurance Company, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, and New York Insurance and Annuity Corporation. Each plaintiff alleged that it had made a payment of privilege taxes under protest and challenged the constitutionality of the privilege tax provision. On the defendants' motion, the plaintiffs were ordered to comply with section 444.1(4) by submitting statements of the alternative retaliatory tax, and they did so, filing supplemental retaliatory tax returns on forms supplied by the Department of Insurance. In each instance the taxpayer computed the amount of retaliatory tax that would be due for the appropriate period if the privilege tax protest succeeded but asserted that the alternative retaliatory tax was being protested and opposed the release of any of those sums into the general revenue fund, as provided by section 444.1. The plaintiffs also alleged in their complaints that the retaliatory tax was unconstitutional and therefore contested their liability for any amounts under the alternative retaliatory provision. On September 27, 1985, the circuit court entered an order finding that section 444.1(4) violated due process by requiring the transfer of protested funds to the general revenue fund, and the court directed the defendants to maintain the protested payments in the protest fund.