Dumont v. United States

85 Fed. Cl. 425, 103 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 684, 2009 U.S. Claims LEXIS 21, 2009 WL 234618
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedJanuary 29, 2009
DocketNo. 08-366T
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 85 Fed. Cl. 425 (Dumont v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Federal Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dumont v. United States, 85 Fed. Cl. 425, 103 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 684, 2009 U.S. Claims LEXIS 21, 2009 WL 234618 (uscfc 2009).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

LETTOW, Judge.

Frank J. Dumont seeks refunds and damages relating to an assessment of taxes by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) in 2003 and 2004. Mr. Dumont has moved for summary judgment, judgment by default, and for imposition of monetary sanctions on defendant. The government has moved to dismiss Mr. Dumont’s complaint, asserting that this court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over plaintiffs claim regarding the 2004 tax year and that he has failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted regarding the 2003 tax year.

BACKGROUND1

On April 15, 2004, Mr. Dumont filed with the IRS an application for an automatic four-month extension of time within which to submit his 2003 tax return. Def.’s Mot. to Dismiss and Resp. to Pl.’s Mot. for Summary Judgment (“Def.’s Mot.”), Ex. A (Certificate of Assessments, Payments, and Other Specified Matters) at 1. This application was granted. On August 15, 2004, plaintiff sought an additional two-month extension, and this application was also granted, leaving Mr. Dumont with a tax-filing deadline of October 15, 2004. Def.’s Mot., Ex A at 1. However, Mr. Dumont did not file his 2003 tax return until April 11, 2008, more than three years and five months after the extended deadline. See Compl. H 3. Mr. Dumont also filed his 2004 tax return on April 11, 2008. See id. In its motion to dismiss, the government argues that with respect to the 2003 tax year, Mr. Dumont has failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted because these taxes “were paid too long ago to be refunded.” Def.’s Mot. at 5. The government additionally argues that this court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over plaintiffs claim regarding the 2004 tax year because Mr. Dumont filed suit in this court less than six months after the filing of his administrative claim for a refund. Id. at 7.

Mr. Dumont has woven the circumstances surrounding the two tax returns into several different motions in this case. At the heart of Mr. Dumont’s complaint, filed on May 21, 2008, is his argument that he was due $2,274.05 based upon the IRS’s “illegal determination and assessment” of his taxes for 2003 and 2004. Compl. 111. This amount includes plaintiffs calculations of his tax deficiencies for those two years, which he contends were improperly assessed, as well as associated penalties and compound interest. See Compl., Ex. 1 (Tax Year Interest Computation). In addition to these refunds, plaintiff has requested $500,000 in “coercive damages” to ensure that the government would “think twice about proceeding illegally against [him] in the future.” Compl. H15.

On September 5, 2008, in his response to defendant’s second motion for an enlargement of time to respond to his complaint, Mr. Dumont moved for summary judgment and default judgment. See Pl.’s Objection to Def.’s Second Mot. for Enlargement of Time. On October 31, 2008, plaintiff filed an amended motion for default judgment in which he argued that the government had “not defended themselves against [plaintiffs] complaint” due to the two enlargements of time granted to defendant by the court. See Pl.’s Am. [427]*427Mot. for Judgment by Default at 1. The government responds that the enlargements of time were properly granted, that it has not failed to defend the case, and that plaintiff is not entitled to a default judgment because he has not established “a claim or right to relief’ under Rule 55(b) of the Rules of the Court of Federal Claims (“RCFC”). See Def.’s Resp. to Pl.’s Mot. for Judgment by Default at 2-3.

On November 17, 2008, plaintiff filed an amended motion for summary judgment. See Pl.’s Am. Mot. for Summary Judgment (“Pl.’s Am. Mot.”). In response, the government argues that summary judgment should be denied to plaintiff because he “has failed to demonstrate the absence of genuine issues of material fact” and because he is not entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Def.’s Opp. to Pl.’s Am. Mot. at 4. Mr. Dumont brought a related motion for imposition of monetary sanctions on November 12, 2008, arguing the same factual and legal premises articulated in his amended motion for default judgment. See Pl.’s Mot. for Monetary Sanction of Def. (“Pl.’s Mot. for Sanctions”), The government disputes the propriety of any sanctions. See Def.’s Resp. to Pl.’s Mot. for Sanctions.

These motions have been fully briefed and accordingly are ready for disposition.

ANALYSIS

A. Jurisdiction

As a plaintiff in federal court, Mr. Dumont bears the burden of establishing, based upon a preponderance of the evidence, that this court has subject matter jurisdiction over his case. Reynolds v. Army & Air Force Exch. Serv., 846 F.2d 746, 748 (Fed.Cir.1988). In determining whether jurisdiction exists, this court must accept as true any facts alleged in the complaint and “draw all reasonable inferences” in favor of the plaintiff. See Henke v. United States, 60 F.3d 795, 797 (Fed.Cir. 1995) (citations omitted). Plaintiffs factual allegations need not be detailed, but they “must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level on the assumption that all the allegations in the complaint are true (even if doubtful in fact).” Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, -, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 1964-65, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) (citations omitted); see also McZeal v. Sprint Nextel Corp., 501 F.3d 1354, 1356 n. 4 (Fed. Cir.2007).

Mr. Dumont argues that this court has jurisdiction over the issues in this ease based upon 28 U.S.C. §§ 1346(a)(1) and 1491. See Compl. 112. However, Section 1346(a)(1) is not a basis for jurisdiction in this court because that statute grants jurisdiction to district counts to adjudicate suits “against the United States for the recovery of any internal-income tax alleged to have been erroneously or illegally assessed or collected, or any penalty claims to have been collected without authority or any sum alleged to have been ... wrongfully collected under the internal-revenue laws.” 28 U.S.C. § 1346(a)(1). Although Section 1346(a) provides that the district courts’ jurisdiction is “concurrent with the United States Court of Federal Claims,” this court’s jurisdiction over tax refund suits arises under the Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1491(a)(1) (“The United States Court of Federal Claims shall have jurisdiction to render judgment upon any claim against the United States founded either upon the Constitution, or any Act of Congress or any regulation of an executive department, or upon any express or implied contract with the United States, or for liquidated or unliquidated damages in cases not sounding in tort.”). The Tucker Act itself does not provide a substantive right of recovery against the United States.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
85 Fed. Cl. 425, 103 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 684, 2009 U.S. Claims LEXIS 21, 2009 WL 234618, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dumont-v-united-states-uscfc-2009.