2019 IL App (1st) 180439 THIRD DIVISION May 22, 2019 No. 1-18-0439 IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT MERCURY SIGHTSEEING BOATS, INC., and ) MERCURY SKYLINE YACHT CHARTERS, INC., ) ) Appeal from the Circuit Court of Plaintiffs-Appellants, ) Cook County. ) v. ) Nos. 16 CH 10775 and ) 16 L 50566, cons. THE COUNTY OF COOK, THE COOK COUNTY ) DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE, and THE COOK ) Honorable Daniel J. Kubasiak, COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE ) Judge Presiding HEARINGS, ) ) Defendants-Appellees. ) JUSTICE ELLIS delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion. Presiding Justice Fitzgerald Smith and Justice Howse concurred in the judgment and opinion. OPINION ¶1 After defendant, the Cook County Department of Revenue (DOR), assessed a tax against plaintiffs, Mercury Sightseeing Boats, Inc., and Mercury Skyline Yacht Carriers, Inc. (collectively, Mercury), Mercury’s attorney contacted DOR to confirm the deadline to file a protest. The DOR auditor assigned to the matter told Mercury it had 20 days from the date Mercury received the notice, which the auditor equated to October 1, 2014. 1-18-0439 ¶2 Not so, as it turned out: Mercury’s deadline was September 29. But Mercury followed DOR’s advice and filed its protest on October 1. ¶3 Nothing was said of this until the administrative law judge (ALJ) assigned to the protest hearing pointed it out to the parties. But the ALJ ruled that DOR had forfeited any timeliness objection and proceeded to the merits of the matter, ultimately ruling in favor of Mercury. ¶4 The trial court, on administrative review, likewise found that Mercury had blown the 20- day deadline but, unlike the ALJ, determined that the deadline was “jurisdictional” in nature and thus could not be forfeited. So without considering the merits of the final administrative decision, the trial court reversed and ordered that judgment be entered in DOR’s favor. ¶5 We agree with the trial court that the 20-day time limitation was “jurisdictional,” in that it was a limitation on the administrative body’s authority to hear protests. As this protest was not filed within the 20-day window, the administrative body lacked authority to hear it. But we hold that DOR violated the procedural due process rights of Mercury by affirmatively misleading Mercury, if unintentionally, on the proper deadline for filing. The proper remedy for that constitutional violation is to allow Mercury its hearing on the merits. We thus vacate the trial court’s ruling and remand for a consideration of that administrative decision on the merits. ¶6 BACKGROUND ¶7 Mercury was founded in the 1930s by a Portuguese immigrant named Arthur Agra. Since that time, Mercury has continued to operate as a family business, running a fleet of ubiquitous boats that provide, among other things, educational architecture tours along the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. ¶8 In 1996, Cook County enacted an amusement tax (Amusement Tax) that imposed against “patrons of every amusement” a 3% tax on the admission fee paid “for the privilege to enter, to 2 1-18-0439 witness ...
Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals