Tax Court: Miller Pipeline lacks support for summary judgment

An Indianapolis pipeline company must proceed to trial in its bid to earn a refund of sales and use taxes, Senior Judge Thomas Fisher ruled for Indiana Tax Court.

Fisher denied Miller Pipeline Corp.’s motion for partial summary judgment in its appeal of a Department of Revenue final determination denying a refund of gross retail sales and use tax paid from 2005 to 2007.

“The evidence Miller Pipeline submitted to support its Motion has not been properly designated and is inadmissible,” Fisher wrote Friday in Miller Pipeline Corporation v. Indiana Dept. of State Revenue, 49T10-1012-TA-64. “The Court will, by separate order, schedule a case management conference with the parties to discuss pre-trial matters and scheduling.”  

Fisher rapped Miller for “infirmities” such as failing to cite to specific parts of documents in evidence that are relevant to its arguments, failing to paginate exhibits, and failing to swear to the exhibits. Lacking clear supporting evidence, Fisher wrote in a footnote, “the Court declines to ‘figure it out’ for itself.”