Adelman v. United States

304 F. Supp. 599, 24 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5769, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12878
CourtDistrict Court, C.D. California
DecidedSeptember 26, 1969
DocketCiv. No. 68-1315
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 304 F. Supp. 599 (Adelman v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, C.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adelman v. United States, 304 F. Supp. 599, 24 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5769, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12878 (C.D. Cal. 1969).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION

WILLIAM P. GRAY, District Judge.

The plaintiff seeks recovery of wagering excise taxes collected under the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, § 4401 (26 U.S.C. § 4401) for the period January 1, 1958, through September 30, 1958, in the amount of $10,000.00, plus assessed interest of $3,491.00 for a total of $13,491.00.

The Government has moved under Rule 56(b) and (c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, for an order granting summary judgment in its favor. After considering the pleadings, memoranda and supporting affidavits submitted by both parties and after hearing oral argument, the court has concluded that the motion must be granted.

During the period in question, the plaintiff was a limited partner in a three-man limited partnership engaged in the operation of a horse and sports wagering business in Reno, Nevada. The partnership was operated from October 15, 1956, until its termination on Septemmber 30, 1958, when the plaintiff and the other limited partner each received a distribution of $10,000.00, the amount of their respective original contributions to the partnership. A later audit and examination of the partnership’s federal wagering tax return for the period January 1, 1957, through September 30, 1958, disclosed that there were unpaid wagering taxes due in the amount of $71,802.70, as of the date of distribution. The addition of this unpaid tax liability to the figures revealed in the final partnership tax return (assets — $23,329.13; liabilities — $4,879.18) shows that the partnership was insolvent on the dissolution date.

On February 15, 1963, an assessment of $71,802.70 in wagering tax, plus a statutory fraud penalty of $35,901.38, plus interest of $20,729.83, for a total of $128,433.91, was made against the three partners, d/b./a Reno Turf Club. After failing in repeated efforts to collect the [601]*601amount due from the general partner, Herman Byrens, the Internal Revenue Service collected by levy the amount involved in this suit from the plaintiff, who thereafter filed a timely claim for refund.

The plaintiff’s asserted liability is based upon the transferee provisions of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, which provide that a transferee is liable for the taxes of the partnership-transferor where he receives property upon the liquidation of the partnership. Int. Rev.Code of 1954, § 6901(a) (2), (b) (26 U.S.C. § 6901(a) (2), (b)); Treas.Reg. § 301.6901-(a) (2) (1954). Other than the statute of limitations, there is no question that the elements of transferee liability are present here. There was a transfer of assets by the partnership and the plaintiff was the transferee of those assets. He received his $10,000.00 distribution upon the termination of the partnership and the sum was transferred in the form of a check drawn on the partnership account. The transfer was accomplished after the period during which the liability in question accrued. Furthermore, after the transfer the partnership ceased to exist and was left insolvent. See J. Mertens, Law of Federal Income Taxation, § 53.06 (1965 rev.).

The major question raised by the Government’s motion for summary judgment is whether the assessment by the Internal Revenue Service was barred by the statute of limitations. The Government relies on a series of waivers consenting to the extension of the period of limitations upon assessment of excise taxes, which were executed on behalf of the partnership by Mr. Byrens, as follows :

Period Assessment Date Extended To Date Submitted

January - March 1958 June 30, 1962 January 3, 1961

July - September 1958 June 30, 1962 August 3,1961

January - September 1958 June 30, 1963 February 5, 1962

The Government claims that these waivers validly extended the statute of limitations for the partnership and therefore also extended it for the plaintiff-transferee under Int.Rev.Code of 1954, § 6901 (c) (26 U.S.C. § 6901(c)). That section provides that an assessment can be made against a transferee within one year after the expiration of the period of limitations for assessment against the transferor. The transferor’s period has been held to mean the original period of limitations as properly extended by consents. Rite-Way Products, Inc. v. Commissioner, 12 T.C. 475, 479 (1949); Denton v. Commissioner, 21 T.C. 295, 301 (1953). If the Government’s analysis is correct then its motion for summary judgment must be granted, since the assessment was made on February 15, 1963, prior to the June 30, 1964, extension date applicable to the plaintiff-transferee under Int. Rev.Code of 1954, § 6901(c) (26 U.S.C. § 6901(c)).

The plaintiff, on the other hand, contends that since the consents were executed by the general partner after the dissolution of the partnership they are invalid and not binding on the partnership. He then argues that neither the partnership nor the plaintiff as its transferee could be liable because the assessment was made on February 15, 1963, after the normal three-year statute of limitations applicable to the partnership had run (Int.Rev.Code of 1954, § 6501 (a)).

The resolution of this case, therefore, turns upon the question of whether Byrens possessed the authority to bind the partnership in these circumstances by executing the consents extending the statute of limitations.

[602]*602Generally, the dissolution of a partnership operates to revoke the power of the partners to create new contracts; however, the authority to settle already existing partnership concerns and to wind up its affairs continues. E. g., Bell v. Morrison, 26 U.S. 351, 370-371, 1 Pet. 351, 7 L.Ed. 174, 183 (1828); Cotten v. Perishable Air Conditioners, 18 Cal.2d 575, 577, 116 P.2d 603, 605, 136 A.L.R. 1068, 1070 (1941). The Uniform Partnership Act, as adopted by the state of Nevada, is to the same effect. Nev.Rev.Stat. §§ 87.300 & 87.330.

The authority of a partner to bind the partnership after the dissolution is stated in Nev.Rev.Stat. § 87.350.

“(1) After dissolution a partner can bind the partnership except as provided in subsection 3:
“(a) By any act appropriate for winding up partnership affairs or completing transactions unfinished at dissolution; * *

Subsection three of that section, which provides that the partnership is not bound by the act of a partner “[w]here the partner has no authority to wind up partnership affairs; * * is inapplicable in this situation, because Byrens, as the only remaining member of the partnership, necessarily had authority to wind up the partnership affairs.

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Bluebook (online)
304 F. Supp. 599, 24 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5769, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12878, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adelman-v-united-states-cacd-1969.