Ill. Bell Telephone Co. v. Allphin

Illinois Bell Telephone Company (hereinafter Bell) filed in the circuit court of Cook County its complaint seeking a declaratory judgment that certain of its revenues were exempt from taxation under the provisions of An Act in relation to a tax upon persons engaged in the business of transmitting messages, commonly referred to as the Messages Tax Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1971, ch. 120, par. 467.1 et seq.) and the implementing rules and regulations of the Department of Revenue; also sought was an injunction restraining the Director of the Department of Revenue and the Attorney General from attempting to collect the tax. Subsequent amendments to the complaint and the responsive pleadings culminated in a four-count composite amended complaint, a composite answer thereto and a composite reply. Temporary injunction orders were entered as prayed, and defendants moved to vacate those orders and dismiss the action on the ground that plaintiff had failed to pursue its administrative remedies, a ground also asserted as an affirmative defense in defendants' answer. The trial court denied both the motion and the affirmative defense, finding that no just reason to delay an appeal from this order existed. Defendants then filed a notice of appeal to the appellate court, and we allowed their motion to transfer that appeal here. 50 Ill.2d R. 302(b). Bell had filed its original complaint shortly after the Department of Revenue on July 31, 1973, issued a notice of tax liability in the amount of $45,946,086.23 covering an audit period from July, 1967, through November, 1970. A second notice of tax liability, covering an audit conducted in late 1973, was issued on June 21, 1974, in the amount of $60,255,626.56, corrected on June 26 to $63,102,349.08. As a result, amended composite pleadings were filed extending to these notices the allegations and responses relating to the original notice of tax liability. The trial court orders of August 17, 1973, June 27 and July 1, 1974, granting Bell's motions for temporary injunctions and enjoining the Director of Revenue from issuing a final assessment or holding any hearings pursuant to the notices, specifically tolled the 20-day period during which Bell could have filed a protest and requested an administrative hearing before the Department of Revenue, a final decision therein then being judicially reviewable under the provisions of the Administrative Review Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1973, ch. 110, par. 264 et seq.). In each instance, the tolling order was entered within 20 days of the issuance of the applicable notice of tax liability.