Doris Herndon v. United States

501 F.2d 1219, 33 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 611, 1974 U.S. App. LEXIS 10414
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 24, 1974
Docket73-1609
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 501 F.2d 1219 (Doris Herndon v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Doris Herndon v. United States, 501 F.2d 1219, 33 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 611, 1974 U.S. App. LEXIS 10414 (8th Cir. 1974).

Opinions

GIBSON, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff, Mrs. Doris Herndon, appeals from the District Court’s 1 denial of an injunction to enjoin the United States from selling real property owned by plaintiff’s husband and levied upon by the United States for unpaid wagering taxes owed by her husband. We affirm the denial of the injunction.

Plaintiff asserts that the federal government cannot sell the real property titled solely in her husband’s name due to her alleged property interest under the Arkansas homestead exemption law.2 We disagree.

Plaintiff has been married to Edward J. Herndon since 1967 and has resided with him at 1300 East Maryland, North Little Rock, Arkansas, since 1969. Title to this real property is held in the husband’s name alone, and the Government does not contest the fact that the real property is the couple’s homestead under Arkansas law. The United States has a lien against the property of the plaintiff’s husband in the amount of $28,519.-74 for unpaid wagering taxes.3 On July 27, 1973, the United States issued a notice of seizure on the above-described real estate pursuant to its levy and proceeded by non judicial steps to foreclose its lien by selling the real property at a public auction on August 14, 1973. On August 8, 1973, plaintiff filed this action asking the District Court to enjoin the sale, since the Arkansas homestead exemption law purportedly grants the wife a property interest in the homestead, even though owned by her husband alone, which property interest as-sertedly precludes a sale to satisfy a federal tax lien. In an order dated August 13, 1973, the District Court denied plaintiff’s request for an injunction, but stayed the sale pending appeal. Plaintiff promptly appealed.

The only issue on appeal is whether the plaintiff can assert whatever homestead rights she has under Arkansas law and the facts of this case to preclude the United States from selling the real property owned solely by her husband.4

Federal courts must first determine what property or rights to property an individual has under state law in applying any federal revenue act. The reason for examining state law is to ascertain what property or property rights the taxpayer holds to which a tax lien can attach. Aquilino v. United States, 363 U.S. 509, 512-514, 80 S.Ct. 1277, 4 L.Ed.2d 1365 (1960). For example, the Government concedes that if the plaintiff and her husband had held the real property as tenants by the entirety un[1221]*1221der Arkansas law, no federal tax lien could attach to that property, unless and until the taxpayer (husband) becomes the sole survivor of the entirety estate. See, e. g., United States v. Hutcherson, 188 F.2d 326 (8th Cir. 1951).

Under Arkansas law, it would have been possible for the plaintiff and her husband to have held the real estate in tenancy by the entirety. See United States v. 339.77 Acres of Land, 240 F.Supp. 545, 548 (W.D.Ark.1965) (and cases cited therein). Plaintiff makes no contention that the real estate was held in tenancy by the entirety.

Homestead exemption laws, however, have presented difficult problems of analysis. Some courts have viewed them as creating a property interest; others have not. One commentary states:

Nevertheless, there is a conflict in the cases as to whether a tax lien is valid upon a homestead interest. It has been held that the states cannot carve out homestead exemptions from the effect of the Federal tax liens. The resolution of this issue may depend upon whether there is involved a single interest of the taxpayer who is subject to tax liability, or whether both spouses have an interest while only one is under a tax liability.

9 Mertens, Law of Federal Income Taxation § 54.52 at 205 (1971) (footnotes omitted) (emphasis added).

The Internal Revenue Code has a specific section covering property exempt from a federal levy. It reads:

(c) No Other Property Exempt. — Notwithstanding any other law of the United States, no property or rights to property shall be exempt from levy other than the property specifically made exempt by subsection (a).5

26 U.S.C. § 6334(e).

The Commissioner has promulgated a regulation briefly explaining 26 U.S.C. § 6334(c) which states:

(c) Other Property. No other property or rights to property are exempt from levy except the property specifically exempted by Section 6334(a). No provision of a State law may exempt property or rights to property from levy for the collection of any Federal tax. Thus, property exempt from execution under State personal or homestead exemption laws is, nevertheless, subject to levy by the United States for collection of its taxes.

Treas.Reg. § 301.6334-1 (c) (1954).

The Code and particularly the regulation, therefore, take the view that only the federal exemption statute exempts property from a federal levy. A necessary corollary to this view is that even if state laws do create a property, interest pursuant to a homestead exemption law, the United States can still levy upon that property. The cases, however, take differing views.

The Code and ancillary regulation is supported by all of the case law except that of the Tenth Circuit. In Broday v. United States, 455 F.2d 1097 (5th Cir. 1972), the Government levied upon a community property checking account for the satisfaction of an antenuptial federal tax debt of the wife. The taxpayer argued that the community property statute of Texas exempted community property from antenuptial debts and that this exemption statute “gives a property right to the husband which [1222]*1222transcends the federal tax law.” Broday v. United States, supra at 1100. The Fifth Circuit held:

We think that the taxpayer must fail in his argument that [the community property exemption statute of Texas] should be characterized in a different manner than an exemption statute. * * * It appears clear * * * that the right of the United States to enforce its liens does not depend upon state laws which regulate the rights of creditors generally and does not depend upon whether the “exemption” label is attached to the particular statute in question.

Broday v. United States, supra at 1101.

The Fifth Circuit had earlier adopted the same position in Shambaugh v. Sco-field, 132 F.2d 345 (5th Cir. 1942). In rejecting the contention that a homestead is immune from forced sale to satisfy a federal income tax lien, the Fifth Circuit held:

The Federal statute authorizes the seizure and sale of real estate to satisfy unpaid income taxes when sufficient personalty is not found. * * * Homesteads are not exempted. * * * These statutes, enacted to effectuate a constitutional power, are the supreme law of the land.

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Doris Herndon v. United States
501 F.2d 1219 (Eighth Circuit, 1974)

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Bluebook (online)
501 F.2d 1219, 33 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 611, 1974 U.S. App. LEXIS 10414, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/doris-herndon-v-united-states-ca8-1974.