Eau Claire attorney’s tax appeal case dismissed over failure to respond, appear

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A state agency has dismissed an Eau Claire attorney’s tax appeal because he failed to respond to discovery requests and failed to appear at status conferences.

Michael Rajek represented himself and his wife in a tax appeal filed with the state Tax Appeals Commission in May 2016, challenging a tax assessment the state Department of Revenue imposed on the Rajeks in 2009 and 2010.

Initially, Rajek participated in the case but later failed to attend three scheduled telephone status conferences in the case — one in February 2017, one in October and one in December. In all three cases, the commission called Rajek’s office number, which had been used in earlier conferences, but his staff told the commission that Rajek was unavailable.

At the October conference Rajek missed, the DOR’s attorney, Kelly Altschul, told the commission that Rajek had failed to respond to the DOR’s discovery requests and responses to his interrogatories, noting that she had emailed him seven times over the course of more than a year but Rajek never responded.  She made a motion for the court to either force him to respond or dismiss the case. The commission asked her to send information about the discovery requests she had made, which she emailed to the commission and Rajek after the hearing.

The following day, the commission ordered Rajek to respond to the DOR’s requests by Nov. 20, saying it would dismiss Rajek’s case if the order was disobeyed. Rajek failed to respond and also failed to show up at the next conference on Dec. 12.

The commission made good on its threat and on Dec. 18 dismissed the case on grounds that Rajek had failed to prosecute the case and failed to follow the commission’s orders.

The Rajeks chose to appeal the decision, filing a petition for judicial review in Eau Claire County Circuit Court on Jan. 11. Rajek is again representing himself and his wife in that case. Follow @erikastrebel