Clark Oil & Refining Corp. v. United States

326 F. Supp. 145, 27 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1388, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13482
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Wisconsin
DecidedMay 3, 1971
DocketCiv. A. No. 67-C-318
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 326 F. Supp. 145 (Clark Oil & Refining Corp. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clark Oil & Refining Corp. v. United States, 326 F. Supp. 145, 27 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1388, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13482 (E.D. Wis. 1971).

Opinion

REYNOLDS, Judge:

OPINION AND ORDER

This is a suit for refund of $185,431.-20 of federal income taxes which the plaintiff paid after the Commissioner of Internal Revenue disallowed a $322,500 deduction on the taxpayer’s federal income tax returns for the fiscal years of 1959 and 1960. The issue is whether the amounts paid by taxpayer in settlement of litigation, which involved the transfer of real estate, and attorneys’ fees were deductible as ordinary and necessary business expenses rather than nondeductible capital expenditures. I hold that the payments involved were nondeductible capital expenditures and therefore find for the Government.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Plaintiff (hereinafter “Clark”) is a corporation organized and doing business under the laws of the State of Wisconsin and has its principal refinery in Blue Island, Illinois. Clark is on the accrual basis.

William C. Richards and Grace J. Richards of Hinsdale, Illinois, owned the real estate involved in the litigation (hereinafter “Richards property”) located at 3108 West Vermont Avenue in Blue Island which was ultimately surrounded on three sides by Clark’s refin[147]*147ery. The Richards purchased this property in 1946. At that time there was a paint reclaiming business on the property. Richards operated a toy manufacturing proprietorship on the property until 1949 when he took over the paint business. From 1949 to the present, Richards only business was the manufacturing, reclaiming, and reprocessing of paint. Richards formed corporations to own and operate his business and the Richards property; their ownership interests will be referred to as “Richards.”

In 1949 Clark began purchasing property in the immediate vicinity to the Richards property, and by various acquisitions of property, Clark in 1953 had the Richards property surrounded on all sides except for the Vermont Avenue side to the south. In 1952, Clark built the Haudry Cat. Cracker for $4,000,000; and in 1957, Clark constructed the fluid cat. cracker at a cost of approximately $6,000,000 on its property. The Clark facilities, i. e., crackers, were adjacent to and surrounded the Richards property on the three sides.

The existence of a paint factory in the middle of an oil refinery was highly undesirable and very dangérous because the Haudry Cat. Cracker, during the course of its operation, emitted gas, smoke, acid fumes, and very hot ceramic fines onto the Richards property. These fines were a definite fire ha2iard, and because the paint factory was so close to the cracker there was always a potential threat.of explosion. In order to eliminate this dangerous situation, Clark, beginning in the year 1953, made several attempts to purchase the Richards property. However, no sale was ever consummated because Clark and Richards could not agree on a price.

Despite the obvious nuisance caused by Clark’s trespasses onto the Richards property and the threat of a potential explosion, the actual damage done to the Richards property by the nuisance was minimal. In any event, it was no more than the out-of-pocket loss suffered by Richards of approximately $5,000. Richards never claimed any casualty loss deductions during the years 1953 through 1960 by reason of damage inflicted upon their property by Clark.

At no time did Mr. Richards ever consider selling his property for less than an amount which he thought would be sufficient to allow him to purchase another piece of property and to relocate his business in another area without any economic loss to himself or his company. In 1957, after having a study made by contractors, plumbers, electricians, etc., Mr. Richards estimated that his cost of finding comparable property and relocating his business would be $275,000.

On July 29, 1958, the Richards filed a lawsuit against Clark and certain of its officers in the Superior Court of Cook County, Illinois, in chancery. Richards requested that the court grant an injunction against alleged nuisances and trespasses committed by Clark on the property and requested a recovery of $1,000,000 in damages. At a hearing on a motion to default and a motion for temporary injunction, Judge Sbarbaro, the presiding judge, indicated that despite the hardship to Clark he might very well grant an injunction. The primary cause of all the trouble between Clark and Richards was the nuisance created by Clark’s cracker. At the time of the suit, Clark did not know if the cracker could be fixed to prevent the cause of nuisance and, if so, how much it would cost.

There was a real threat to Clark of an injunction sometime in the immediate future and a real threat of future injunctions, since Clark did not know whether the cracker which was causing the nuisance that Richards was seeking to have enjoined could be fixed.

An injunction would have cost Clark a minimum of $25,000 a day. Accordingly, the very substance of the Clark corporation was in dire jeopardy if any injunction were granted.

[148]*148Clark was also confronted with the problem that if there was an explosion in the future, its liability for damage to life and property could be in the millions of dollars.

Clark decided that if the refinery was to be operated at the Blue Island location, the only way it could be certain that there would be no future injunctions which would stop operations, and that it would not have to pay millions of dollars of damages in the future to Richards and/or other third parties on the Richards premises because of an explosion, was to “remove” Richards from the property. The only way Clark could “remove” Richards from that property was to buy the property.

After Judge- Sbarbaro had indicated that he might very well grant the injunction that was being requested, Clark suggested that the case be settled. The case was to be settled by Clark’s purchasing the Richards property from Richards.

When the parties could not agree as to a purchase price, they decided they would submit the settlement to arbitration. The arbitration agreement, drafted by Clark’s attorneys, provided that an arbitrator would be selected by Clark, an arbitrator would be selected by Richards, and an arbitrator would be selected by the presiding judge. The three would compute the amount to be paid by Clark to Richards for its property. The arbitration agreement provided that the following four elements were to be considered in computing a fair price for the Richards property: (1) The cost of acquiring like land; (2) the cost of erecting similar buildings; (3) the cost of moving; and (4) the cost of any economic loss which Richards might suffer during the move. Also, the arbitration agreement provided that Judge Sbarbaro would fix a fifth item to be considered in the total price paid by Clark to Richards — attorneys’ fees. The arbitration agreement states nothing with regard to any payment being made by Clark to Richards in lieu of damages that Clark may have committed on Richards prior to the settlement of this lawsuit.

Both the reports of the arbitrator selected by Clark and the arbitrator selected by Richards and the majority decision, upon which the sum of $287,500 transferred by Clark to Richards is based, state very clearly that the only factors which were taken into consideration with regard to computing the price that Clark was to pay for the Richards property was the cost of acquiring like land and buildings, the cost that Richards might incur by having to move his operation, and the cost of any loss of profits that Richards might incur during the move.

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Related

Clark Oil and Refining Corporation v. United States
473 F.2d 1217 (Seventh Circuit, 1973)
Arthur H. Du Grenier, Inc. v. Commissioner
58 T.C. 931 (U.S. Tax Court, 1972)

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Bluebook (online)
326 F. Supp. 145, 27 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1388, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13482, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clark-oil-refining-corp-v-united-states-wied-1971.