27-55-43 - Commission to institute proceedings; sequestration. - Mississippi Statutes

§ 27-55-43. Commission to institute proceedings; sequestration.
 

The commission is hereby authorized and empowered to institute legal proceedings for any and all violations of this article, to recover taxes, damages or penalties due under this article. All taxes and damages recovered in any proceedings by the commission shall be paid over and disposed of as any and all other gasoline taxes are required to be. Any chancellor or judge authorized to grant remedial writs shall grant writs of sequestration for the impounding of gasoline on which the excise tax or penalties is owed. Before any writ of sequestration shall be issued under this section, the complainant shall make an affidavit showing that he had good cause to believe, and does believe, that there is an excise tax or penalty owed the state of Mississippi on gasoline sought to be sequestered and that unless said gasoline is sequestered and impounded, said gasoline will be removed, concealed or disposed of. Upon such affidavit being presented to any chancellor or judge authorized to grant remedial writs, said chancellor or judge shall order said writ to be issued upon the filing of a bill of complaint for the collection of the excise tax on said gasoline. The writ of sequestration shall then be issued and the property dealt with in the manner now provided by law for other writs of sequestration. Where the state of Mississippi is the complainant, no bond shall be required of said state for the issuance of said writ of sequestration. 
 

The state of Mississippi shall have a lien upon all of the property of every distributor or person acting as a distributor of gasoline without a permit, used in the operation of his business as such distributor for the excise taxes levied by this article and due or to become due the state of Mississippi. Such liens or encumbrances of whatever character shall be paramount to private liens and to the rights of any holder of the legal title in or to any pumps, tanks, inventories of gasoline and other petroleum products, motor vehicles, or other personal property used in the operation of said business. 
 

The commission shall have the right, when taxes due the state of Mississippi are delinquent under this article, or where any person acting as a distributor of gasoline without a permit receives gasoline in this state without paying the tax thereon, to cause a writ of summons and seizure to issue, returnable to the court having jurisdiction thereof, in like manner as such writs are authorized to be issued by Chapter 7 of Title 85, Mississippi Code of 1972. Said writ shall be directed to the proper officer or to the commission commanding the officer or commission, as the case may be, to seize the property upon which a lien exists as hereinabove provided. After the issuance of said writ, such actions and proceedings shall be had on said writ as presently provided for the enforcement of purchase money security interests by the statutes of this state. The commission shall have the right to stop and hold any moving or movable equipment subject to seizure pursuant to the provisions of this paragraph pending the issuance of process. 
 

It is expressly provided that the remedies set out in the foregoing paragraphs shall be cumulative and that no action taken by the commission shall be construed to be an election on the part of this state or any of its officers to pursue any remedy hereunder to the exclusion of any other remedy for which provision is made in this article. 
 

Sources: Codes, 1942, § 10076-22, Laws,  1969 Ex Sess, ch. 58, § 22; Laws, 1981, ch. 468, § 12, eff from and after July 1, 1981.