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Ayotte v. State Tax Assessor
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MAINE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT Reporter of Decisions
Decision: 2002 ME 91
Docket: Yor-01-732
Submitted
on Briefs: May 30, 2002
Decided: June 4, 2002
Panel: SAUFLEY, C.J., and CLIFFORD, RUDMAN, DANA, CALKINS, and LEVY, JJ.
MARK J. AYOTTE et al.
v.
STATE TAX ASSESSOR
PER CURIAM
Mark J. Ayotte, Norman Canwell, and Dennis LaBelle, residents of New Hampshire,
appeal from judgments entered in the Superior Court (York County, Brennan, J.), dismissing
their Rule 80C appeals from decisions of the Maine Revenue Services demanding payment of
income tax and assessing penalties and interest. Ayotte, Canwell, and LaBelle argue, in this
consolidated appeal, that they are not required to pay Maine taxes because they work at the
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard which they contend is located in New Hampshire. Last year the
United States Supreme Court dismissed the State of New Hampshire's petition to locate the
Maine-New Hampshire border, holding that New Hampshire was judicially estopped from
asserting a position different from the position it took in a 1977 consent decree agreeing that the
boundary is the "middle of the [Piscataqua River's] main channel of navigation." New
Hampshire v. Maine, 532 U.S. 742, 751 (2001). As a result, the Supreme Court has held
definitively that the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey Island lies within the State of Maine.
Id. at 747-48, 756. The taxpayers' appeals fail "to state a claim upon which relief can be
granted." M.R. Civ. P. 12 (b)(6).
The entry is:
Judgment affirmed.
For plaintiffs:
Mark J. Ayotte
96 Garden Street
Portsmouth, NH 03801
Norman G. Canwell
26 Harding Street
Rochester, NH 03867
Dennis M. LaBelle
8 White Mountain Highway
Milton, NH 03851
Attorneys for defendant:
G. Steven Rowe, Attorney General
Christopher C. Taub, Asst. Attorney General
Thomas A. Knowlton, Asst. Attorney General
6 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0006
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