Tuesday, October 04, 2005


No Comment

I follow a policy of not commenting on this blog about cases that either I or my firm are involved with or with respect to issues that are involved in matters where we are counsel. However, that policy is not violated where I note, without comment, an opinion in a case that I have been involved with.

Today, the Court of Appeals of Maryland handed down the opinion in the case of Comptroller v. Citicorp International Communications, Inc. I acted as local counsel for the taxpayer. The question before the Court was whether a fee paid by the taxpayer to terminate an equipment lease was subject to Maryland sales tax which is levied upon lease payments. The Court agreed with the taxpayer that a payment to terminate a lease was not a payment under the lease and was thus not a taxable sale subject to sales tax. Judge Wilner filed a dissent.

I don't think that it violates my "no comment" rule to state that Mike Pearl of Morrison Foerster ably pulled the laboring oar for the taxpayer.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You represented the taxpayer. The Court agreed with the taxpayer. As is obvious to all readers of your Commentary, The Court must be wrong.

And how many time have you had the opprtunity to invoke the no comment rule?, ie., any other cases that an appeals court decided worty of consideration.

Is this the first opprtunity to invoke, and consequently breach, this rule.

Full disclosure please.