Decatur Water Supply Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

88 F.2d 341, 19 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 124, 1937 U.S. App. LEXIS 3121
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedFebruary 25, 1937
DocketNo. 6019
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 88 F.2d 341 (Decatur Water Supply Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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Decatur Water Supply Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 88 F.2d 341, 19 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 124, 1937 U.S. App. LEXIS 3121 (7th Cir. 1937).

Opinion

BRIGGLE, District Judge.

This is a petition to review the decision of the Board of Tax Appeals, affirming an order of the Commissioner, levying a deficiency assessment against the petitioner for income tax for the years 1929, 1930, and 1931. The question for determination is whether money received in those years and applied by the taxpayer in retirement of its preferred stock is “income” within the meaning of the Revenue Act of 1928 (45 Stat. 791).

The facts were stipulated before the Board and may be summarized, as follows: Due to a combination of circumstances, not here important, the city of Decatur, 111., in 1920 found its water supply wholly inadequate, and set about to remedy this condition. It decided to construct a dam across the valley of the Sangamon river near. the. city and thus create a large reservoir which would be adequate for its future needs. The contract for the dam was let and bonds were issued for the payment of the contract price, but the city, having approached its constitutional debt limit could obtain no further credit, and thus found itself without the necessary funds with which to acquire the lands that would be flooded by the impounding of the water of the Sangamon, as-planned.

The city thereupon, through its officers and legal counsel, brought about the organization of the Decature Water Supply Company (the taxpayer herein), which received a charter as a public utility on February 2, 1921, under the laws of the State of Illinois. The company was organized with an authorized capital stock of $1,000,000 — $999,-000 preferred stock and $1,000 common stock. Public spirited citizens of the city aided its officials in this plan by subscribing for the entire amount of the capital stock of the company. The charter of the company provided that the holders of the preferred stock should be entitled to cumulative dividends at the rate of 7 per cent, per annum and no more and that the preferred stock should be retired by the company at par, after the dividends were fully paid, upon fifteen days’ notice to such stockholders ; that no earnings of the company should be used for capital expenditures after two years from the date of its incorporation, but must be used either to pay the specified dividends on the preferred stock or to retire the same, and all sums realized from the sale of capital assets, after two years from the date of incorporation should be used to retire preferred stock. It was further provided in the charter that when all the preferred stock of the company should be retired and the debts and obligations of the company should be fully paid and upon the payment of $1,000 to be distributed to the common stockholders of the company that the company should, thereupon, convey to the city of Decatur all of the property and assets of the company and then be dissolved.

Supplementing the charter provisions, the company on April 4, 1921, entered into a separate contract with the city (some pertinent portions of which are appended in a footnote

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88 F.2d 341, 19 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 124, 1937 U.S. App. LEXIS 3121, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/decatur-water-supply-co-v-commissioner-of-internal-revenue-ca7-1937.