Fehrmann v. Phillips

610 F. Supp. 1042, 56 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5603, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18952
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Wisconsin
DecidedJune 13, 1985
DocketNo. 84-C-0351
StatusPublished

This text of 610 F. Supp. 1042 (Fehrmann v. Phillips) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fehrmann v. Phillips, 610 F. Supp. 1042, 56 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5603, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18952 (E.D. Wis. 1985).

Opinion

DECISION AND ORDER

WARREN, District Judge.

This lawsuit represents another example of the wholly frivolous and downright vexatious tax protestor litigation that has unfortunately clogged the trial courts of this [1043]*1043and other federal circuits in recent months. Despite the unequivocal warnings of both the district and circuit courts that the wholesale abuse of the judicial process embodied in these meritless actions will not be tolerated further but will, instead, result in the imposition of harsh sanctions, see, e.g., Granzow v. C.I.R., 739 F.2d 265, 269-270 (7th Cir.1984) (“... [W]e can no longer tolerate abuse of the judicial review process by irresponsible taxpayers who press stale and frivolous arguments, without hope of success on the merits, in order to delay or harass the collection of public revenues or for other nonworthy purposes”); United States v. Ekblad, 732 F.2d 562, 563-564 (7th Cir.1984) (awarding the government double costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees in the wake of a frivolous and unsuccessful appeal by the taxpayer-defendant), misguided litigants, like the present plaintiff, with perverted views of their rights and responsibilities with respect to the payment of federal income tax and distorted notions of the role of the federal judiciary in remedying so-called civil rights violations of constitutional dimension, continue to initiate these hapless actions. Although the courthouse doors remain open to all serious civil litigants, the time has plainly come to place on notice those taxpayers, motivated not by a legitimate interest in the equitable resolution of claims but prompted to action solely out of malice and an unbounded sense of self-importance, that their previously unfettered access to the courts is narrowing. With today’s order, the Court provides such unequivocal, if informal, notice.

The rambling — and, in some portions, virtually unintelligible — complaint in this case was filed against three employees of the federal Internal Revenue Service on March 14, 1984. Although the complaint incorporates wholly irrelevant discussions of, among other things, the doctrine of separation of church and state and the fundamentals of so-called “positive law,” it appears that the principal allegations contained therein are that the named defendants entered into a conspiracy to deprive the plaintiff of her due process rights by assessing various penalties against her for filing frivolous tax returns and false withholding statements. Invoking the language of the federal civil rights statutes — specifically, 42 U.S.C. § 1983 & 1985 — and certain provisions of the federal criminal code — namely, 18 U.S.C. § 241 & 242 — the plaintiff complains that various levies made on her wages by the Internal Revenue Service in payment of the penalty assessments collectively constitute an “unlawful taking of Plaintiff’s monies against Plaintiff’s will [and a] deprivation of Plaintiff’s right to due process of law before being deprived of property.” Plaintiff’s Complaint at 6 & 7 (March 14, 1984). While her ad damnum clause is not a model of pleading clarity, it appears that she seeks declaratory judgment that the several assessments and subsequent levies on her wages were unconstitutional, injunctive relief preventing the named defendants from issuing and pursuing recovery on further tax penalties, and total damages in the amount of $89,580.22.

Presently before the Court in this matter is the defendants’ motion of May 25, 1984, to dismiss the complaint in its entirety, pursuant to Rule 12(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and for an award of those attorney’s fees and costs incurred in the defense of this matter. In their supporting memorandum, the defendants describe with some precision the factual circumstances upon which this lawsuit is premised and argue, among other things, that the Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over the action, that the plaintiff is precluded from prosecuting her claims against any of the named defendants pursuant to the doctrine of sovereign immunity, and, in any event, that the complaint wholly fails to state a claim upon which any sort of relief might be granted. The defendants’ companion request for an award of attorney’s fees is based on the plaintiff’s purported exhibition of bad faith in the initiation and prosecution of this action.

Although the plaintiff has filed a memorandum in opposition to the pending Rule 12(b) motion, it is nothing more than an [1044]*1044overwrought and largely irrelevant discussion of the role of divinity in the establishment of government, the limitations on the powers of the government to tax its citizens, the fallen status and present shame of the federal judiciary, and the hoax perpetrated by the Internal Revenue Service under the guise of false notions about income and property. Like her complaint, the plaintiffs responsive brief provides the Court with absolutely no assistance whatsoever in resolving this matter fairly and serves only to underscore the supreme contempt that this litigant feels toward the very institution to which she has turned in an effort to remedy what she perceives as significant violations of her constitutional rights.

Having carefully reviewed the colorful record compiled in this case to date, the Court is reminded of the simple yet powerful words of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in reaction to a similar suit by taxpayers seeking, among other things, an injunction barring the further withholding of taxes and the return of those amounts previously withheld: In Edgar v. Inland Steel Company, 744 F.2d 1276, 1278 (7th Cir.1984), the Court of Appeals rejected as meritless

a patently frivolous appeal filed by abusers of the tax system merely to delay and harass the collection of public revenues. Employees have no causes of action against employers to recover wages withheld and paid over to the government in satisfaction of federal income tax liability. 26 U.S.C. § 3403. See Pascoe v. Internal Revenue Service, 580 F.Supp. 649, 654 (E.D.Mich.1984); Lonsdale v. Smelser, 553 F.Supp. 259 (N.D.Tex.1982); Chandler v. Perini Power Constructors, Inc., 520 F.Supp. 1152 (D.N.H.1981). Even assuming that this statute does not bar plaintiffs’ action, which it does, plaintiffs cannot recover under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Section 1983 creates a remedy to redress deprivations under color of state law, of any right, privilege or immunity secured by the Constitution of the United States. The statute, by its express terms, is directed only to state wrongdoing. At best, defendant acted under color of federal law when it complied with the IRS instructions; but section 1983 does not protect against such acts. See Hubbert v. U.S. Parole Commission,

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Bluebook (online)
610 F. Supp. 1042, 56 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 5603, 1985 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18952, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fehrmann-v-phillips-wied-1985.