Ellwein v. United States

577 F. Supp. 1368, 53 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 561, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10318
CourtDistrict Court, D. North Dakota
DecidedDecember 30, 1983
DocketCiv. No. A2-81-188
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 577 F. Supp. 1368 (Ellwein v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. North Dakota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ellwein v. United States, 577 F. Supp. 1368, 53 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 561, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10318 (D.N.D. 1983).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

BENSON, Chief Judge.

The Ellweins brought this lawsuit for a refund of income taxes assessed against and paid by them for the year 1979. The first issue presented is whether expenses incurred for transportation, food, and lodging by the husband taxpayer, while working as a boilermaker in the construction of power plants in central North Dakota, are deductible. The taxpayers claim these expenses are deductible under section 162 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 as ordinary and necessary business expenses. Deductibility of these expenses depends on whether Nester Ellwein’s prospects for continued employment in the area and at particular job sites were temporary, rather than indefinite. The second issue is whether the taxpayers properly substantiated any allowable expenses.

I. BACKGROUND FACTS

A. Nester Ellwein’s Work History

Nester Ellwein is the primary plaintiff in this case, and his wife LaVain joins him in this lawsuit solely because they filed a joint income tax return for 1979.

Since the early 1970’s, when Nester became employed as a construction worker at the ABM missile facility at Nekoma, North Dakota, the Ellweins have maintained a home in Lakota, North Dakota. Between 1973 and 1978 Chicago Bridge & Iron employed Nester as a boilermaker through a referral from the boilermakers’ union in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Nester’s work with Chicago Bridge caused him to work at several locations in the United States including: Hillsboro and Velva, North Dakota; East Grand Forks, Virginia, and Waseca, Minnesota; and Council Bluffs, Iowa. All of these jobs were of short duration except for the work in Hillsboro, North Dakota.

In the fall of 1978 Chicago Bridge laid Nester off, and he filed with the boilermakers’ union in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The union placed Nester’s name on a list of workers seeking jobs. When his name came to the top of the list, the union referred Nester to a job with Combustion Engineering at the Coal Creek Plant near Falkirk, North Dakota. This plant was one of the immense coal-fired electrical generating plants then under construction in central North Dakota. These power plants are clustered between Mandan on the south and Hazen-Beulah-Underwood on the north. Nester’s job at the Coal Creek Plant lasted from early fall of 1978 until June 29, 1979, a period of seven or eight months.

Within a week after the lay-off the boilermakers’ union referred Nester, through the union ladder, to a job with Babcock & Wilcox at the Coyote Plant under construction near Beulah. Nester worked there for six weeks until he became ill and had to leave the job. In the late fall of 1979 Nester recovered from his illness, and the union referred him to a job with Combustion Engineering at the Antelope Valley Plant North of Beulah. He worked there until illness again forced him to quit in June of 1980.

Nester took over a year to recover from his illness. By July 1981 Dresser Engineering employed Nester in a non-union job at Trenton, North Dakota. This job lasted six weeks. Then the union referred Nester to a job with the James Edward Company at the Mandan refinery, which lasted two weeks. Nester was out of work over the winter of 1981-82. In April 1982 Combustion Engineering hired Nester, through the union referral process, to work at the Antelope Valley Plant North of Beulah. He worked there continuously until January 1983. After a couple months of unemployment, the union referred Nester to a job with Riley-Stoker at the ANG coal gasification plant north of Beulah. Riley-Stoker laid him off on June 22, 1983, and, as of the date of trial, Nester has not been employed.

[1371]*1371B. The Ellweins’ Living Arrangements

During 1979 Nester stayed in a trailer home that he moved to Pick City, North Dakota, in the fall of 1978. Pick City is roughly midway between Beulah and Underwood, in an area where several power plants were under construction in 1979. The trailer home has remained in the area for Nester’s use since the fall of 1978.

LaVain Ellwein continued to live in their home in Lakota, where she was employed. During 1979, the tax year in issue, the taxpayers’ son graduated from high school and secured employment at one of the projects in the Beulah area. He lived with Nester in the trailer home for approximately the last six months of 1979 and ate his meals there. LaVain and other members of their family occasionally visited Nester and stayed in the trailer home.

Most weekends in 1979 Nester travelled to Lakota to see his family, and he incurred mileage expenses in doing so. He paid rent for the parking space for his trailer, paid electrical bills, paid water fees, and drove his car between Pick City and the job site each working day. Nester ate breakfast and supper in his trailer and packed lunch each morning to take to the job site. On weekends LaVain purchased groceries in Lakota for Nester to take to Pick City.

Nester had not used the trailer home as a temporary residence before 1978, when he moved it to Pick City. His work before that time had taken him away from home for various periods of time, but the Ellweins had used the trailer solely as rental property prior to the fall of 1978.

C. Boilermakers’ Prospects for Work in 1979
1. Work in Central North Dakota

Nester moved his trailer to Pick City from Lakota in the fall of 1978 when he was hired as a boilermaker at one of several power plants under construction in the area near Pick City. At that time the need for boilermakers in construction of Coal Creek, near Falkirk, North Dakota, had peaked and was gradually declining. Construction of another power plant just south of Beulah, the Coyote Station, had begun in the fall of 1977, and the number of boilermakers on the job there was steadily increasing in late 1978 and early 1979. Construction of a third power plant, the Antelope Valley Station, began in mid-1978 just north of Beulah. The number of boilermakers employed at that plant was also steadily increasing during 1979. The ANG coal gasification plant north of Beulah was in the planning stage as early as June 1977, and actual construction on the ANG plant commenced in July of 1980.

Professor T. Larry Leistritz, an agricultural economist from North Dakota State University, testified for the Government as an expert witness. In 1975 he had conducted surveys of construction force personnel then employed at power plant construction projects in central North Dakota. The Leland Olds Station at Stanton, North Dakota, and the Square Butte Plant near Wash-burn, North Dakota, were already under construction at that time. The Coal Creek Station at Underwood had also commenced construction in 1975. Dr. Leistritz testified there was considerable optimism among the construction work force for the possibilities of further employment in the area. Considering the size and number of the projects under construction or planned over the course of 1975 to 1978, Dr. Leistritz testified that the prospects for continuing employment in central North Dakota in the construction industry as a whole were very good in 1975.

In addition, Dr. Leistritz reviewed plans for construction of other central North Dakota power plants, including specifications and schedules for the various phases of construction. Based on this review and his experience and knowledge in impact assessment of large construction projects, Dr.

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577 F. Supp. 1368, 53 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 561, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10318, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ellwein-v-united-states-ndd-1983.