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West Virginia Legislative Claims Commission

Volume Number: 30
Category(s): MOTOR VEHICLES
Opinion Issued December 18, 2014
HUNTINGTON CYCLES INC., DBA CHARLIE’S HARLEY DAVIDSON
VS.
DIVISION OF MOTOR VEHICLES
(CC-14-0233)
     Claimant appeared pro se.
     Gretchen A. Murphy, Assistant Attorney General, for Respondent.
     PER CURIAM:
      Claimant, Huntington Cycles, Inc., dba Charlie’s Harley Davidson, by it’s representative, Susan Lucas, brought this action to recover the amount of $347.50 for excess taxes charged by Respondent based on a transaction with Claimant’s customer.
      In 2013, Claimant made a transaction with a customer in which the customer traded two (2) vehicles in exchange for another vehicle. Common practice for Claimant is to enter all vehicle data into the Respondent’s Vehicle Registration System (“VRS”) in order to generate a temporary registration for the purchased vehicle and calculate the total amount of taxes, less the tax credit for the trade-ins, owed by the customer. After the data is entered, a cover sheet is automatically generated, which gives a summary of the total transaction. Once the Claimant has completed the data entry into the VRS system, that information is sent to Respondent’s Huntington office, where it is reviewed and approved, before being transmitted to Respondent’s headquarters in Charleston for final approval. While entering the data for this transaction in the VRS system, Claimant mistakenly entered information for only one (1) of the customer’s trade-ins. This resulted in a total tax assessment of $388.00, which was debited from Claimant’s escrow account within fifteen (15) days after submitting the data to Respondent. Claimant states that it should have only been assessed $40.50 based on the tax credit afforded for two (2) trade-ins. Therefore, Claimant is asking this Court to grant an award in the amount of $347.50, which is the difference in the amount that was actually paid and the amount that should have been paid. Nevertheless, Claimant admits that it was his mistake that led to the discrepancy.
      Claimant contends that despite its error while entering data into the VRS system, Respondent should have recognized the error. Claimant argues that Respondent is consistently vigilant in catching errors and sending them back to dealerships for corrections. Claimant notes that it’s curious that on this one occasion of its over pay, Respondent failed to catch the error. Respondent disagrees, stating that Claimant made the error, and could have sought a refund within the statutory six (6) month period; however, Claimant failed to seek a refund until a full eight (8) months after the assessment.
      Here, the Court is of the opinion that Claimant should be reimbursed for the over-assessment of vehicle taxes because the Respondent, with its numerous levels of review, is in a better position to catch any errors that enter through Respondent’s own system. Vehicle dealerships are required to use Respondent’s system; therefore, the Court finds that a moral obligation exists on the part of the State when an obvious error is discovered–even after the six (6) month statutory period for seeking a tax refund has elapsed. The Court is convinced that based on these narrow facts, extenuating circumstances exist which would relieve Claimant of the six (6) month requirement. Furthermore, Respondent’s witness testimony corroborates Claimant’s contention that Claimant was over-assessed on this transaction and that Claimant’s customer actually paid the correct amount of taxes to Claimant.
      Based on the foregoing, the Court is of the opinion to, and does hereby, recommend that an award in the amount of $347.50 be paid to the Claimant.
      Award $347.50.
     
Summary:
     


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