Charron v. United States

200 F.3d 785
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
DecidedDecember 27, 1999
DocketNos. 98-5021 to 98-5024, 98-5026 to 98-5030
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 200 F.3d 785 (Charron v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Charron v. United States, 200 F.3d 785 (Fed. Cir. 1999).

Opinion

FRIEDMAN, Senior Circuit Judge.

These are nine consolidated appeals in which Canadian citizens sought refunds of United States income taxes paid on income received for playing professional ice hockey for United States teams. The Court of Federal Claims denied the exclusions and deductions from income that the plaintiffs sought. The trial judge also denied a motion that she disqualify herself. We affirm.

I

These cases were filed in the Court of Claims (the trial division of which was the predecessor to the Court of Federal Claims) in the mid-1970’s, seeking refunds of federal income taxes paid in the mid and late 1960’s and early 1970’s. They were part of a larger number of similar cases (approximately 200) that were so filed, all asserting substantially the same claims. A single lawyer, Charles L. Abrahams, represented all the plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs in the present nine cases (like those in most of the other cases) are Canadian citizens who played professional ice hockey for United States teams (the “Players” which, where appropriate, includes their spouses who are parties). [158] They seek refunds of United States income taxes they paid between 1967 and 1974. Their complaints asserted two types of refund claims. First, they alleged that they were entitled to exclude from their taxable United States income amounts reflecting the portion of their salaries “earned” while living and performing services in Canada during the off-season. Second, they sought to deduct expenses allegedly incurred throughout the year in connection with their hockey playing activities while living in the United States in their respective teams’ home cities and while traveling with their respective teams during the hockey season. These expenses included the costs of sports equipment and other personal items, including haircuts, entertainment, home telephone lines and television.

After the Internal Revenue Service denied their refund claims, the Players filed the present suits. Following separate trials, the Court of Federal Claims, in a series of opinions, rejected all the claims and dismissed the complaints.

The court held that the Players had not established that a portion of their salaries was excludable from taxable income under 26 U.S.C. §§ 861(a)(3), 862(a)(3), 871(b), or 26 C.F.R. § 1.861-4, discussed in part III, below, because it was for services that they had rendered in Canada in the off-season. The court ruled that a provision in their employment contracts requiring them to report to the training camp “in good physical condition” was not a contractual promise to undertake specified physical conditioning during the off-season, but merely a condition of their employment. The court further found that they had not established the number of days they spent in Canada attending training camp or playing games there during the regular season.

The court rejected the Players’ claims for deductible business expenses for three reasons. With respect to some claims, it held that the Players failed to prove that a valid power of attorney was on file with [787]*787the Internal Revenue Service when their attorney filed them. The court dismissed a number of other claims because the Players had not filed administrative refund claims with the Service, as section 7422(a) of the Internal Revenue Code required. See 26 U.S.C. § 7422(a). The court dismissed the remaining claims because the Players failed to substantiate them with adequate records or credible testimony.

II

A. In 1986 the hockey player cases were reassigned to Judge Horn of the Court of Federal Claims after Judge Miller, to whom they originally had been assigned, retired. In May 1991, the appellant Favell and the “plaintiffs” in “related cases” moved to disqualify Judge Horn “because of her personal bias and prejudice against plaintiffs and their counsel.” The motion was combined with a thirty-eight page supporting memorandum and accompanied by a sixteen page “Declaration” of Mr. Abrahams, which set forth various alleged facts.

After oral argument, Judge Horn ruled that the Players had not established a basis for recusal. She stated that she had “seen nothing in the record that raises the specter” of her “having a personal bias against the Plaintiffs and their counsel ... or anything that raises the appearance of that.” Toward the end of the hearing, she stated:

In sum, I have no personal bias. I have no antipathy towards either you or your clients. I have not stepped off the bench and become an advocate for the Defendant as you have alleged. The Defendant will be held to the same strict standards to which you will be held.
As you know, rulings adverse to a party certainly cannot form the basis for disqualification. To the extent that you have taken any of my remarks to be sarcastic or curt, which you have alleged in your pleadings, they were not meant to be disparaging. Certainly I have tried to be accurate as I have tried to tell you that I do or do not believe something that you may be arguing.
You may not like the manner of my speech. I’m sorry about that, but not everybody is going to like everybody else, and it may well be that you don’t care for my style. It may well be that you don’t care for the manner in which I conduct proceedings, but that still does not suggest that I have a bias or a prejudice against you, and certainly since I have had no contact with your clients whatsoever, I can have no bias or prejudice towards them, and do not.

She concluded that “there are no grounds for me to recuse myself in this case.” The court wrote no opinion and entered the following order: “DENIED at an oral argument and status conference on 6/27/91. See transcript of recorded hearing.”

The Players filed with this court a petition for writ of mandamus to compel Judge Horn to recuse herself, which this court denied. In re Favell, 949 F.2d 402 (table), 1991 WL 209820, at *1 (Fed.Cir.1991).

B. The motion to disqualify was based upon 28 U.S.C. § 455 and Rule 63(b) of the Rules of the Court of Federal Claims. Section 455 provides in relevant part:

(a) Any justice, judge, or magistrate of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.
(b) He shall also disqualify himself in the following circumstances:
(1) Where he has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party....
Rule 63 provides in relevant part:
(b) Voluntary Disqualification. A judge shall withdraw from a case when required by 28 U.S.C. § 455, and, at any time, may withdraw from a case if otherwise such judge deems such judge disqualified by bias or prejudice.
(c) Affidavit of Bias or Prejudice.

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Bluebook (online)
200 F.3d 785, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/charron-v-united-states-cafc-1999.