Eagerton v. Exchange Oil and Gas Corp.

Fourteen oil and gas producers filed similar suits challenging the constitutionality of Act No. 79-434, approved by the Alabama Legislature in its 1979 Regular Session, and seeking refunds of oil and gas severance taxes paid pursuant to the Act. The trial court held the Act to be unconstitutional. Ralph P. Eagerton, Jr., as Commissioner of Revenue, appealed. We reverse and remand.

Before the legislature enacted Act No. 79-434, the statute governing the amount of oil and gas severance tax was Code of 1975, § 40-20-2. That section in its relevant part read:(a) There is hereby levied, to be…