Elrod Slug Casting MacH. Co. v. O'MALLEY

57 F. Supp. 915, 33 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 218, 1944 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1832
CourtDistrict Court, D. Nebraska
DecidedSeptember 15, 1944
DocketCivil Action 211
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 57 F. Supp. 915 (Elrod Slug Casting MacH. Co. v. O'MALLEY) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Nebraska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Elrod Slug Casting MacH. Co. v. O'MALLEY, 57 F. Supp. 915, 33 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 218, 1944 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1832 (D. Neb. 1944).

Opinion

DONOHOE, District Judge.

The plaintiff in this action seeks to recover certain moneys paid by it as a corporation income tax for the years 1936, 1937 and 1938. The amounts involved are: $578.03, plus $37.24 interest, paid under protest April 11, 1938; $2,160.11, $189.62 penalty, and $186.33 interest, paid under protest December 13, 1939; and $533.97, plus $23.72 interest, paid under protest on June 8, 1940, together with interest on said amounts at the rate of 6% per annum from the dates of payment.

The basic question to be determined is the cost of certain patent rights acquired by the plaintiff upon which the amortized depreciation is allowed, and in addition the question of whether the plaintiff is chargeable with the sum of $3,228.40 added by the revenue department to plaintiff’s income for the year 1937, which was collected and retained by the Ludlow Typo-graph Company of Illinois under certain written contracts with the plaintiff.

The evidence is largely in the form of written documents, except on the special defense of estoppel by contract asserted by the defendant.

The principal question that 'confronts the court is: What was the cost of the property, consisting of the invention and patent rights thereon, to the plaintiff?

The basic patent was issued on December 19, 1922, and improvements thereon on December 29, 1925 (plaintiff’s exhibits 9, 10 and 11). Since the term of seventeen years runs from the date of the issuance of the patent for tax purposes, the plaintiff would be entitled to an amortized depreciation of l/17th of the cost each year for the full term. The question of this cost first arose out of the tax assessment for the years 1922 and 1923. An investigation was then made by Internal Revenue Agent M. A. Bercovici, who then determined that the cost of the property to the plaintiff for tax purposes was the sum of $64,839.52. This report and finding was transmitted to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue at Washington, D. C., on July 10, 1926, by the revenue agent in charge, and was received by the Commissioner on July 13, 1926, and recorded in the Records Division of his office on July 14, 1926 (plaintiff’s exhibit 1). The cost so arrived at and reported was seemingly accepted by the department, and an amortized depreciation in the sum of $3,814.09 was allowed each year thereafter up to and including the year 1930. For the years 1931 and 1932, this basis of depreciation or exhaustion was rejected by the department for the assigned reason that in a certain case wherein the plaintiff was petitioner, and the Commissioner of Internal Revenue was respondent, the United States Board of Tax Appeals, in determining the invested capital of the plaintiff, held that the initial cost of the patent was $10,200 (18 B.T.A. 1003) for invested capital purposes. The department has adhered to this position at all times since.

An action was brought involving the 1931 and 1932 tax, similar to the present action, and a settlement was arrived at and the case dismissed. A written instrument was signed by an attorney, representing the plaintiff in the case, in which the undertaking was to control future actions (defendant’s exhibit 18). The defendant’s special defense is based upon this instrument, and we shall have occasion to refer to it hereafter. A transcript of the evidence in the case before the Board of Tax Appeals has been received in evidence, marked plaintiff’s exhibit 14.

A proper determination of the controversy necessitates a determination of when the plaintiff acquired title to the patent. When that is once determined, we may then proceed to determine the cost. Upon making a preliminary study of the record, all parties seemed to be agreed on the assumption that the title to the property was vested in the plaintiff by the assignment from Benjamin S. Elrod purporting to assign to the plaintiff, as a corporation, the application filed May 14, 1917, serial No. 168,546, dated July 31, 1917, and recorded in the Patent Office on August 3, 1917. However, from a study of the memorandum of Revenue Agent Bercovici, we observe the statement that while the stock was issued on the 1st day of August, 1917, the charter was not granted until August 15, 1917, at which time the Nebraska State Railway Commission instructed that no issue of stock for the patent would be permitted. This statement prompted the court to invite counsel to *918 submit additional evidence of the organization of the plaintiff. This has been done. A certified copy of the original articles of incorporation (defendant’s exhibit 32) now appears in the record. The certificate of the Secretary of State discloses that it was filed in his office on the 15th day of August, 1917, or fifteen days after the articles of incorporation were executed. From the statement in the articles covering the general nature of the business to be transacted, it appears that the corporation was organized as a manufacturing corporation (see Bolton v. Nebraska Chicory Co., 69 Neb. 681, 96 N.W. 148), and as such, section 24-301 Compiled Statutes of Nebraska 1929, entitled “Corporations,” governs. The statute requires that after the making of the certificate of organization, it shall he forwarded to the Secretary of State, and by him recorded. This is made a condition precedent to the transaction of any business. It need not be filed with the county clerk. Meyer-Cord Co. v. Hill, 84 Neb. 89, 120 N.W. 951. Until the certificate is filed and recorded, there is no charter. The law and the articles so filed, taken together, constitute the charter. The filing of the articles of incorporation is a condition precedent to the existence of any corporate franchise. Abbott v. Omaha Smelting & Refining Co., 4 Neb. 416. See also Livesey v. Omaha Hotel, 5 Neb. 50. The adoption of the articles, and any attempt to function as a corporation before the filing of the articles, as required by the law, in the manner specified, does not even create a corporation de facto. Hughes Co. v. Farmers Union Produce Co., 110 Neb. 736, 194 N.W. 872, 37 A.L.R. 1314. Consequently, under the law and the evidence, the plaintiff had no legal existence until the 15th day of August, 1917.

The contract (defendant’s exhibit 31) was executed on the 31st day of July, 1917. The assignment (defendant’s exhibit 30), in keeping with the terms of the contract, was executed on the same day it was filed for record in the Patent Office, on August 3, 1917. The assignment was ineffectual to pass title to the plaintiff for the simple reason that the plaintiff had no legal existence. The persons to the transactions may be said, as a matter of law, at the time of the transaction to be an association or a partnership, having in mind the creation of a corporation, but the corporation had not been formed and was not ,in existence. It needs no citation of authorities to support the proposition that the title to the property must have vested somewhere. It either did not pass from the grantor of the assignment, or if it did, it passed to the parties who contributed the consideration, whether we refer to them as an association or a partnership. The title to property never floats around in the air awaiting the construction of a landing place. It must vest somewhere. Since plaintiff was not then in existence, it could not vest in plaintiff and necessarily the title either remained in Mr. Elrod or vested in the members of the association or partnership in shares according to the contribution of the capital.

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Bluebook (online)
57 F. Supp. 915, 33 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 218, 1944 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1832, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/elrod-slug-casting-mach-co-v-omalley-ned-1944.