Dakan v. United States

492 F.2d 1192, 203 Ct. Cl. 655, 33 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 779, 1974 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 202
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedFebruary 20, 1974
DocketNo. 12-69
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 492 F.2d 1192 (Dakan 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
Dakan v. United States, 492 F.2d 1192, 203 Ct. Cl. 655, 33 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 779, 1974 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 202 (cc 1974).

Opinion

Per Curiam :

This case was referred to former Trial Judge William E. Day, with directions to make findings of fact and recommendations for conclusion of law under the order of reference and Buie 134(h). The trial judge has done so in an opinion and report filed November 9, 1972. All of the exceptions to the trial judge’s opinion, findings of fact and recommended conclusion of law were filed by the plaintiff and the case has been submitted to the court on oral argument of counsel and the briefs of the parties.

The issue to be decided is the plaintiff’s claim for capital gain treatment for portions of the proceeds of a sale by him of a mortgage loan correspondent business. Before us, plaintiff conceded that a portion of the $200,000 sale price, designated by him as “The right to service loans: $54,943.80” must receive ordinary income treatment. However, citing [657]*657Bisbee-Baldwin Corp v. Tomlinson, 320 F. 2d 929 (5th Cir. 1963), he claims capital gains treatment for elements of the “bundle of rights” he sold, designated by him as:

Files and Records_$36, 600
Bank lines of credit resulting from monthly escrow deposits_$10, 000
The right to originate loans_$60, 000

Defendant does not deny capital gains treatment for $26,555.65, good will, and for certain other smaller items, one of which was “Furniture, furnishings, and equipment,” $9,900.55, as described in the sales agreement. However, defendant says, and we agree, that the contract goodwill item included by its terms “the goodwill attributable to the above described assets”, i.e., to the seller’s contracts with various insurance companies, and thus included the value of profit expectations, other than the right to service existing loans, incident to future business under those contracts, i.e., bank lines of credit and the right to originate loans. Moreover, defendant says, the “Furniture, furnishings, and equipment,” item included by its terms the files and records. Thus plaintiff would add an aggregate of $106,600 to the value allocated in the agreement of sale to two capital items, correspondingly reducing the non-capital items. His argument before us that he could make the allocation he contends for without inconsistency with the sales agreement is therefore shown to be untenable, and must be rejected.

The trial judge holds that in the absence of mistake, fraud, undue influence, etc., the taxpayer is bound by the allocations he made in the sales agreement, citing Commissioner v. Danielson, 378 F. 2d 771 (3d Cir. 1967), cert. denied, 389 U.S. 858 (1967). We have twice recently cited Danielson with approval. Davee v. United States, 195 Ct. Cl. 184, 444 F. 2d 557 (1971); Eckstein v. United States, 196 Ct. Cl. 644, 452 F. 2d 1036 (1971). Danielson involved an allocation in a selling agreement between stock and a covenant not to compete, and it was held or assumed that the assignment of any value to the covenant not to compete was not in accord with economic reality. It was also held or assumed that a polarity in the tax treatment of buyer and seller was required, i.e., one had to be a counterpart of the other. Thus to sustain [658]*658the seller’s position would jeopardize the buyer’s enjoyment of the tax treatment it presumably had bargained and paid for.

Defendant considers there is a similar polarity here, and its counsel stated before us that the pertinent tax year of the buyer, Commonwealth, is still open and will be disposed of in harmony with our decision to be made concerning the seller. Plaintiff, however, says there is no polarity and that the buyer is not necessarily precluded from amortizing an item in the “bundle of rights” solely because the seller obtains capital gains treatment for it.

The question is not free from difficulty but we do not think the outcome of the case depends on the answer. Let us assume arguendo there is no polarity and that plaintiff is therefore not “estopped” to take a position here adverse to the buyer’s interests. The fact remains, in this case, unlike Danielson, the trier of fact made no finding that the contract allocation lacked economic reality, and no exception is taken to the omission. As said in Davee, supra, at p. 196, 444 F. 2d at 564, the court is in a less favorable position than parties bargaining at arm’s length to determine the values of the various rights involved, and it will not revise their agreement in the absence of a shocking disproportion or manifest injustice to the public treasury. As we read Danielson, it was the finding of lack of economic reality in the allocation of value to the covenant not to compete, that brought forward considerations of estoppel and unfairness to the buyer. Here, if Commonwealth’s interests are not considered, the bargained agreement of sale still fixes the kind and value of the rights transferred and the Internal Revenue Service is within its rights in following the agreement, not an ex post facto allocation that repudiates the agreement. The Bisbee-Baldwin case involved a sale without any contract allocation and it is not authority for repudiating an allocation when a contract of sale makes one.

Plaintiff says he relied on Nelson Weaver Realty Co. v. Commissioner, 307 F. 2d 897 (5th Cir. 1962), which held that all proceeds of a sale of a mortgage loan correspondent business were capital gains. He believed he could disregard an express contract allocation, and that his position would [659]*659not be at polarity with the buyer’s. Danielson was not yet on the books. Bisbee-Baldwin in effect overrules Nelson Weaver Realty Oo., insofar as the former holds that in the absence of contract allocation the tax consequences of such a sale must be determined separately as to each one of the “bundle of rights” transferred. It may be said the degree of reliance on Nelson Weaver Realty Oo., is surprising in view of the fact it was decided in a circuit other than the one plaintiff lived in, by a divided panel and with a vigorous dissent by the distinguished Chief Judge. Failure to evaluate correctly the tax consequences of a sale is not the kind of mistake that might allow the court to reform the contract for tax purposes. See, Hamlin's Trust v. Commissioner, 209 F. 2d 761 (10th Cir. 1954).

Since the court is in agreement with the opinion, findings of fact and recommended conclusion of the trial judge it hereby adopts the same, as modified and supplemented by the preceding, as the basis for its judgment in this case. Accordingly, the petition is dismissed.

The opinion, findings of fact and conclusion of law of the trial judge

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Bluebook (online)
492 F.2d 1192, 203 Ct. Cl. 655, 33 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 779, 1974 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 202, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dakan-v-united-states-cc-1974.