Cohn v. United States

240 F. Supp. 786, 15 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 457, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9224
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Indiana
DecidedFebruary 3, 1965
DocketCiv. No. 3404
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 240 F. Supp. 786 (Cohn v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Indiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cohn v. United States, 240 F. Supp. 786, 15 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 457, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9224 (N.D. Ind. 1965).

Opinion

GRANT, Chief Judge.

This cause is presently before the Court on cross-motions for summary judgment. Defendant filed its motion for summary judgment on July 21, 1964; plaintiffs filed their motion on September 16, 1964. Both parties have submitted briefs on the issues involved herein.

Plaintiffs in this suit are seeking a refund of income taxes and interest paid in the sum of One Thousand Seven Hundred Sixty-Six and 9**12Aw Dollars ($1,-766.12) for the years 1956 through 1962, inclusive, with interest thereon, which, plaintiffs contend, was illegally and unlawfully assessed and collected. The complaint is in seven counts, one each for the seven years in question; however, only two distinct issues are presented in the seven counts for determination.

The issues arise out of the following facts: Leo Cohn, over 75 years of age in 1956, had been in poor health since 1950. (Compl. pars. 3, 14 and 15.) In each of the years 1956 through 1962, Leo Cohn was required to spend the winter months in Florida and to adhere to a salt-free diet. (Compl. pars. 8, 14, 23, 31, 38, 45, 52 and 60.) Mr. Cohn had to pay $800 per year over and above the [788]*788cost of usual lodging to obtain accommodations with kitchen facilities where his wife could prepare salt-free meals. (Compl. pars. 16 and 17.) For each of the seven years here involved, the taxpayers have claimed as a medical expense deduction the $800 attributable to the value of kitchen facilities in their lodgings in Florida. (Compl. pars. 53 and 61; compl. exs. A through E.)

During one of the years in suit, 1957, Leo Cohn was to receive medical treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Mr. Cohn was ambulatory during his stay there and stayed at the Kahler Hotel in Rochester, this Hotel being connected to the Mayo Clinic by means of an underground tunnel. Nursing care and other hospital facilities were available at the Kahler Hotel. (Compl. par. 25.) Taxpayers claim that the expenses incurred at the Kahler Hotel, in the amount of $83.34, are deductible medical expenses. (Compl. par. 25; compl. ex. B.)

On September 23, and November 20, 1963, the District Director of Internal Revenue at Indianapolis, Indiana, disallowed the several claims for refund submitted by plaintiffs and gave plaintiffs notice thereof.

Turning first to the deductibility of the expenses incurred by the taxpayers for the kitchen facilities, it is well to note that prior to 1956, Mr. Cohn’s health was such that he was able to travel outside his hotel in Florida to take his meals at restaurants and eating-places which served salt-free meals. As to these expenses of this very taxpayer, the Tax Court of the United States, in Cohn v. Commissioner, 38 T.C. 387 (1962), held that Mr. Cohn was entitled to deduct as a medical expense the added charge made by restaurants for the preparation of his meals, specially without salt, along with the funds expended by him in taxi fares to reach such establishments. Subsequently, and during the years here in suit, the health of Mr. Cohn deteriorated to the point that he was unable to travel outside his living accommodations for meals, and then, for the first time, he began taking accommodations equipped with kitchen facilities wherein Mrs. Cohn could prepare his special diet.

The foregoing is the factual context out of which the crux of taxpayers’ claims arise. The taxpayers argue that, inasmuch as the expenses attributable to obtaining salt-free meals were deemed deductible as medical expenses prior to 1956 (in the form of additional charges at restaurants and taxi fares), expenses attributable to obtaining salt-free meals thereafter should likewise be deductible (now in the form of additional accommodation charges for kitchen facilities). Taxpayers contend that the objectives for which the expenses were incurred in the two instances are identical: Mr. Cohn’s health demanded that he eat only salt-free foods. The form or manner in which this objective is achieved is irrelevant for tax purposes, or, at least, should be.

To the Government, on the other hand, the “form” makes all the difference in the world. Admitting that the expenses for taxi fares and additional restaurant charges are deductible, the Government contends that kitchen facilities, without more, are different in character. A kitchen is a facility for the preparation of food, salted or salt-free, and the mere fact that the facility is to be used to prepare one rather than the other does not, in itself, increase the cost of the facility. Once one has taken accommodations with kitchen facilities attached thereto, the cost of the kitchen facilities is in no way determined or influenced by the physical well-being of the occupant. Absent any allegation that the kitchen facilities imposed any “additional food preparation costs” on Mr. Cohn by reason of his poor health as compared to one in good health engaging similar accommodations, the Government contends no cause of action is set forth. Thus, the Government would have taxpayers’ claim for deductions in this case stand on its own, distinct from the claim made prior to 1956, and would contend that the deductibility of the expenses here at issue depends, not only upon the purpose of said expenses, [789]*789but also upon the manner or form by which that purpose was sought to be effected.

A studied consideration of the respective contentions in this cause (briefly synopsized in the preceding several paragraphs) has convinced the Court that the better argument is that of the Government. While the position taken by the plaintiffs is not devoid of all merit or persuasion, it is readily apparent that the nature of the expense, and the manner by which salt-free meals were obtained, underwent such a substantial change subsequent to 1955 that the prior determination of deductibility in Cohn v. Commissioner, supra, cannot control the present determination.

The expenses held deductible in the first Cohn case, were those attributable to “additional food preparation costs.” There, the court said (at 391):

* * * (T)he item sought to be deducted is not the cost of the food which was taken to satisfy Leo’s ordinary nutritional needs but rather the additional charge for special preparation of salt-free food.

However, once the decision had been made by Mr. Cohn to obtain salt-free meals by means of preparing them in his own rented kitchen, the “salt-free” character of his meals lost its tax significance, there being no allegation that Mr. Cohn required anything other than an ordinary kitchen for that purpose. Furthermore, there were no additional food preparation costs after renting the kitchen, for, absent allegations to the contrary, it must be assumed that Mrs. Cohn could prepare salt-free meals as cheaply as ordinary meals. Thus, the complaint would indicate that subsequent to 1955 Mr. Cohn’s salt-free requirement did not raise his food preparation bill at all.

The Government makes a well-drawn analogy to Rev.Rul. 55-261, 1955-1 Cum.Bull. 307, 312, which says, in part:

Where the special food or beverage is taken as a substitute for food or beverage normally consumed by a person and satisfies his nutritional requirement, the expense incurred is a personal expense within the meaning of Section 24(a) (1) of the Code; but where it is prescribed by a physician for medicinal purposes and is in addition to the normal diet of the patient, the cost may qualify as a medicinal expense under Section 23(x). (Emphasis added.)

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Related

Rose v. Commissioner
52 T.C. 521 (U.S. Tax Court, 1969)

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Bluebook (online)
240 F. Supp. 786, 15 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 457, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9224, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cohn-v-united-states-innd-1965.