Cambridge Loan & Building Co. v. United States

57 F.2d 936, 74 Ct. Cl. 500, 11 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 86, 1932 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 425, 1932 U.S. Tax Cas. (CCH) 9253
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedMay 2, 1932
DocketK-430
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 57 F.2d 936 (Cambridge Loan & Building Co. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cambridge Loan & Building Co. v. United States, 57 F.2d 936, 74 Ct. Cl. 500, 11 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 86, 1932 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 425, 1932 U.S. Tax Cas. (CCH) 9253 (cc 1932).

Opinion

BOOTH, Chief Justice.

The facts involved in this tax case are stipulated. The record presents but one question. The plaintiff is a domestic building and loan association, incorporated under the laws of Ohio. On September 18, 1924, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue assessed against the plaintiff income and excess profits taxes for the calendar years 1918 to 1923, inclusive, which, together with interest thereon, amounted to $16,783.97. On the same date the Commissioner also assessed against the plaintiff penalties in the total sum of $2,016.-41 for the years 1922 and 1923. The plaintiff on September 18, 1924, paid the income and excess profits taxes in the sum of $16,783.97, but did not pay the penalties assessed, i. e., $2,016.41. On September 25,1924, the plaintiff filed with the Commissioner a claim for a refund of $16,783.97, the aggregate amount paid by it under the assessment of September 18, 1924. Plaintiff’s refund claim was regular in every respect and was predicated upon an asserted right of exemption from taxation under section 231 of the Revenue Acts of 1918 (40 Stat. 1057, 1076) and 1921 (42 Stat. 253). The above sections of the Revenue Acts accomplish substantially the same exemption, and we quote but one, i. e., section 231 of the act of 1918, as follows:

“Sec. 231. That the following organizations shall be exempt from taxation under this title — * * *
“(4) Domestic building and loan associations and cooperative banks without capital stock organized and operated for mutual purposes and without profit. * * * ”

On November 26, 1924, the Commissioner allowed the plaintiff’s claim in so far as the penalties assessed for 1922 and 1923 were concerned, i. e., in the.sum of $2,016.41, and rejected it for the sum of $14,767.56. In other words, the Commissioner, in considering plaintiff’s refund claim, deducted from the aggregate sum paid by it, i. e., $16,783.97 as income taxes, the amount of $2,016.41 assessed as penalties for 1922 and 1923, but never .paid, and by proper office procedure issued a certificate of overassessment for the sum of $2,016.41.

On December 22, 1924, the plaintiff brought suit in this court (D-1083) to recover the sum of $14,767.56, alleging in its petition that this sum represented the amount [939]*939of income taxes illegally collected from it by the Commissioner under section 231 of the Revenue Acts of 1918 and 1921, supra, inas - much as it was in fact a domestic building and loan association without capital stock and organized for mutual and not profitable purposes. This court on June 6, 1927 (63 Ct. Cl. 631), awarded the plaintiff a judgment for $14,767.56 and interest thereon as by law allowed. The case was subsequently appealed to the Supreme Court and the judgment of this court affirmed, 278 U. S. 5-5, 49 S. Ct. 39, 73 L. Ed. 189. While plaintiff’s caso D-1083 was pending in this court, but long prior to its trial and final disposition, the Commissioner forwarded to the plaintiff certificates of overassessment, “with notations thereon that said amounts of $92-2.05 and $1,094.36, respectively, have been abated”; each of said certificates containing an additional notation as follows:

“The amount of the overassessment will be abated, credited, or refunded as indicated below. (You will be relieved from the payment of any amount abated; if an overpayment has been made and other taxes are due, credit will be made accordingly, and any amount refundable is covered by Treasury check transmitted herewith.)”

Instead of transmitting to the plaintiff a cheek in payment of said overassessments, the Commissioner applied the total sum, i. e., $2,016.41, wholly in abatement of the aforesaid penalties for the years 1922' and 1923, which the plaintiff had never paid, and which by the Commissioner’s own ruling should not have been paid, thereby diminishing the amount of refund to which the plaintiff was entitled under the law, i. e., from $16,783.97 to $14,707.56, leaving- due the plaintiff an obvious unpaid balance of $2,016.41, for which this suit is brought.

The facts show that the error which occasions this controversy is the result of the apparent mistake committed, by the Commissioner in deducting from the aggregate amount of income taxes paid by the plaintiff for the years involved the sum of $2,016.41 in abatement of penalties for the years 1922 and 1923 when the amount of the penalties had not been paid, and had theretofore been abated. What we think happened, at least we deem it a logical inference from the facts, is that the Commissioner, in consideration of plaintiff’s refund claim, neglected to observe that plaintiff’s income tax liability as assessed by him included two items, income tax and interest, totaling $16,783.97 and penalties amounting to $2,016.41, or a total of $18,-800.38, $16,783.97 of which amount and no greater sum was paid as income tax, and that, in issuing his certificates of overassessment for the total sum of $2,016.41, ho should have denied plaintiff’s refund claim in the amount o-f $16,783.97instead of $14,767.56-, for clearly it was his intent to deny a refund of the total amount paid by plaintiff as income taxes and allow it only as to the penalties assessed, which the Commissioner appar ently believed were included in the sum paid as income taxes. It certainly would he most unusual, as well as contrary to law, to apply an overas-sessment in abatement of penalties which had been held by the Commissioner to constitute an overassessment. The resulting effect is that the plaintiff has been denied payment of an allowed refund claim to which it is conceded it is entitled, and the recovery of which simply accords to the plaintiff the refund of the total sum of income taxes due it under the decision of the Supreme Court. The plaintiff was right in relying upon the payment of its allowed refund claim, when it commenced suit in this court to recover $14,767.56 income taxes. Plaintiff very properly omitted any allegation in its petition in D-1083 with respect to this allowed claim; it was not involved when the litigation started, and, while the plaintiff might have amended its petition and included the same in the case when payment was refused, it was under no- legal obligation so to do. A lawfully allowed refund claim is in a different status from a rejected one so far as the jurisdiction of this court in tax eases is concerned. Bonwit Teller Case, 283 U. S. 258, 51 S. Ct. 395, 75 L. Ed. 1018.

It is admitted by the defendant that the plaintiff is entitled to reama-, unless the doetrine of res adjudicata is applicable, and that doctrine is the single defense invoked. The findings of this court in plaintiff’s- case I) — 1083 make no mention of the amount involved in this suit, and the opinion of the court docs not discuss or refer to an allowed refund claim for the sum of $2,016.41 wherein payment had been refused. The amount of the judgment awarded the plaintiff clearly indexes that it was not in any wise considered in fixing the same, and, unless the present issue is one which because of its character was judicially determined, irrespective of its inclusion or exclusion from case D-108-3, the judgment then rendered is not res adjudicata. It was said by the- Supremo Court in Cromwell v. County of Sac., 94 U. S. 351, 353, 356, 24 L. Ed. 195:

“The language, therefore, which is so often used, that a judgment estops not only as to every ground of recovery or defence [940]*940actually presented in the action, but also as.

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Bluebook (online)
57 F.2d 936, 74 Ct. Cl. 500, 11 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 86, 1932 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 425, 1932 U.S. Tax Cas. (CCH) 9253, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cambridge-loan-building-co-v-united-states-cc-1932.