Edward Orton, Jr., Ceramic Foundation v. Commissioner

56 T.C. 147, 1971 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 143
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedApril 26, 1971
DocketDocket No. 3271-67
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 56 T.C. 147 (Edward Orton, Jr., Ceramic Foundation v. Commissioner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Tax Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Edward Orton, Jr., Ceramic Foundation v. Commissioner, 56 T.C. 147, 1971 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 143 (tax 1971).

Opinions

Sterrett, Judge:

The Commissioner determined the following deficiencies in petitioner’s Federal income taxes:1

Taxable year Deficiency
1962 _$19,368
1963 _ 7,789
1964 _ 20,105

In an amended answer respondent determined the following alternative deficiencies:

Taxable year Deficiency
1962 ___ $16, 233
1963 _ 5,209
1964 _ 17, 328

We are to decide whether petitioner for the years in issue fails to qualify as an organization exempt from taxation under section 501 (c)(3),2 or is a feeder organization under section 502, or, in the alternative, is the recipient of unrelated-business income under sections 511,512, and 513.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Some of the facts have been stipulated and the stipulation of facts and the exhibits attached thereto are incorporated herein by this reference.

The Edward Orton, Jr., Ceramic Foundation (sometimes hereinafter referred to as the petitioner or the foundation) filed exempt organization returns with the district director of internal revenue, Cincinnati, Ohio, for each of the following periods: January 1,1962, through December 31, 1962; January 1, 1963, through June 30, 1963; July 1,1963, through June 30,1964; and July 1,1964, through June 30, 1965. At the time of filing the petition herein, petitioner’s principal office was located in Columbus, Ohio. For purposes of this case the parties have stipulated that the calendar year is the proper period of accounting for each of the years in issue.

Petitioner was established under the will of Edward Orton, Jr., deceased, which was admitted to probate February 28,1932. Edward Orton, Jr. (sometimes hereinafter referred to as testator), was an outstanding authority on ceramics. His particular interest lay in scientific research and education in the field of ceramics and ceramic engineering. He received a degree as an engineer of mines from Ohio State University and later became a member of the faculty. He procured the establishment, by legislative enactment, and became the head of the Department of Ceramics at Ohio State University. He first began the manufacture of pyrometric cones in the university laboratory.

The testator later established a laboratory on a privately owned site near the university campus and conducted the business of manufacturing the cones as a private enterprise. Just prior to his death, the testator acquired a new site and erected a new laboratory known as the Orton Memorial Laboratory, in which the business of manufacturing cones is now being conducted.

Pyrometric cones are used in the manufacture of ceramics for testing the firing process and maturing of various clay products. They are described as small, slender, trihedral pyramids made of a mixture of minerals very similar to the minerals of which the ceramic bodies are composed. The cone bodies and the ceramic bodies are sufficiently alike that they react approximately the same thermochemically. The function of the pyrometric cone is to provide a convenient means of measuring the combined effect, during firing, of temperature, time, and firing atmosphere on ceramic ware. Thus the cones provide a reference standard and serve as a means of measuring and communicating the results of heat treatment of ceramic ware within the ceramic industry. In addition to being a production control, the cones are tools for basic research, and fundamental aids in ceramic education.

In his will the testator divided his estate into two parcels. The first parcel contained his pyrometric cone business and all the assets related to it. The will bequeathed the first parcel to a specified board of trustees which was to hold and operate the business in a trust known as the Edward Orton, Jr., Ceramic Foundation. Testator in his will specified the purpose of petitioner in some detail:

Sub-Item 2. Purpose of the trust. There are two purposes for which this trust is created. The first and principal purpose i's to provide a stable and dependable organization for continuing the manufacture and sale of Standard Pyrometrie Cones of the highest quality and most exact accuracy that is commercially feasible, at a reasonable price. The second and subsidiary purpose of this trust is to provide a Research Organization for the prosecution of studies and researches for overcoming technical and manufacturing'difficulties, and for thus advancing the ceramic arts and industries in the United States.
Sub-Item 3. Historical statement conoeming the manufacture of the Standard Pyrometrie Cones. Prior to 1896, there was no convenient or generally accepted mode of regulating the firing process or heat treatment of Claywares in the Ceramic Industries of the United States, and virtually no mode of comparing kiln-firing practice, as between different factories, and different industries. I entered the manufacture and sale of pyrometrie cones, with the purpose of performing a definite and needed service to the Ceramic Industries: (1) by enabling them to better control the firing of their products, which is the weakest point of the manufacturing process •• (2) by facilitating the freer exchange of exact information concerning the firing process between ceramic manufacturers, and (3) thus inducing a better and more cooperative relationship among them, and thus making greater scientific and industrial progress probable. In this enterprise, while manufacturing profit is essential to permit its continuance, i't has, from the first, been my purpose to make financial profit incidental to the principal idea of furnishing to ceramic manufacturers, a mode of controlling or regulating the firing process of their wares: with the highest attainable degree of dependability at the lowest reasonable cost. Having been successful in obtaining the confidence of manufacturers of ceramic products in Standard Pyrometrie Cones, it is my desire to assure myself that the manufacturing establishments which I have built up shall continue to fulfil) this same useful purpose, upon the same high plane, and with the same ideals of public service, after my death.
*******
■Sub-Item 6. Mode of financing the continued operation of the trust. It is my intention, in this Trust, to provide an organization, not for profit whose real or ultimate objects are altruistic, and wholly devoted to producing industrial, scientific and social betterments, without any personal or private gain to anyone, other than as wages paid for services rendered. To this end, it is my will that the surplus produced by the manufacturing and vending organization, known as The Standard Pyrometrie Cone Company, shall be expended by the Research Organization, whose product is knowledge, given free to all who are interested. The magnitude of the surplu's, necessarily, will determine the extend [sic] of the research activity.

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Bluebook (online)
56 T.C. 147, 1971 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 143, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/edward-orton-jr-ceramic-foundation-v-commissioner-tax-1971.