|
|
|
Court Stops NYC Suit Vs. Online Cigarette Vendor
Breaking Legal News |
2010/01/26 04:48
|
The Supreme Court has ruled against New York City in its effort to use federal racketeering law to sue Internet cigarette sellers for lost tax revenue.
By a 5-3 vote Monday, the court ended the city's lawsuit against Hemi Group, a New Mexico-based company that sells cigarettes online.
New York taxes the possession of cigarettes but finds it difficult to collect those taxes from Internet sales. The city says it loses millions of dollars in tax revenues from online sales.
Sellers like Hemi are not required to charge or collect the taxes, but they are supposed to provide information about their customers to states.
New York's lawsuit under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act accused Hemi of fraud for failing to provide the customer information.
The court said Monday that the city cannot use the racketeering law to collect tobacco taxes from Hemi.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas formed the majority.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor did not take part in the case because it came from the federal appeals court in New York on which she served before her elevation to the high court. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Class action or a representative action is a form of lawsuit in which a large group of people collectively bring a claim to court and/or in which a class of defendants is being sued. This form of collective lawsuit originated in the United States and is still predominantly a U.S. phenomenon, at least the U.S. variant of it. In the United States federal courts, class actions are governed by Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule. Since 1938, many states have adopted rules similar to the FRCP. However, some states like California have civil procedure systems which deviate significantly from the federal rules; the California Codes provide for four separate types of class actions. As a result, there are two separate treatises devoted solely to the complex topic of California class actions. Some states, such as Virginia, do not provide for any class actions, while others, such as New York, limit the types of claims that may be brought as class actions. They can construct your law firm a brand new website, lawyer website templates and help you redesign your existing law firm site to secure your place in the internet. |
Law Firm Directory
|
|
Legal News RSS Feed
