Fournier v. United States

102 Fed. Cl. 495, 108 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 7453, 2011 U.S. Claims LEXIS 2340, 2011 WL 6187094
CourtUnited States Court of Federal Claims
DecidedDecember 13, 2011
DocketNo. 06-933T
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 102 Fed. Cl. 495 (Fournier 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.

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Fournier v. United States, 102 Fed. Cl. 495, 108 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 7453, 2011 U.S. Claims LEXIS 2340, 2011 WL 6187094 (uscfc 2011).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

WHEELER, Judge.

This Amcor tax partnership case is before the Court on Plaintiffs’ August 8, 2011 motion for reconsideration. Plaintiffs, E. Haffner Fournier, Joanne D. Fournier, Kevin P. Regan, Sharon M. Regan, Robert L. Spelling, Darlene J. Sperling, Jeffrey Struiksma, Cynthia Struiksma, and Joan Hearley, as trustee of the Hearley Family Trust and individually, were partners in tax shelters organized as limited partnerships, which American Agri-Corp and successor Amcor Capital Corporation (“Ancor”) promoted and managed during the 1980s. On April 16, 2008, Judge Lawrence Block dismissed, for lack of jurisdiction, the claims of representative plaintiffs that the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) untimely assessed back taxes and incorrectly assessed interest, including penalty interest under the former 26 U.S.C. (“Internal Revenue Code” or “I.R.C.”) § 6621(c) (repealed 1989). The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed Judge Block’s ruling on March 5, 2010. The case is before the undersigned upon transfer from Judge Block. For the reasons explained below, the Court DENIES Plaintiffs’ motion for reconsideration.

Factual and Legal Background

During the 1980s, Ancor promoted agricultural investment partnerships, which it managed as general partner. Amcor designed financing arrangements for the partnerships, which were intended to generate interest expense deductions for the individual partners to be offset against ordinary income. If any taxes were later due, the taxes would be calculated at lower capital gains rates. See Prati v. United States (“Prati III"), 603 F.3d 1301, 1302 (Fed.Cir.2010); Keener v. United States (“Keener II”), 551 F.3d 1358, 1360 (Fed.Cir.2009); Prati v. [497]*497United States (“Prati I”), 81 Fed.Cl. 422, 425 (2008); see also Pis.’ Mot. (Aug. 8, 2011) Ex. 1 (“Behrens Affidavit”), at 3-4 ¶ 16, Docket No. 28-1. Mr. Frederick H. Behrens is the Chairman of Amcor and was the tax matters partner (“TMP”) within the meaning of the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act (“TEFRA”), § 402, 96 Stat. 324, 664 (1982) (current version at I.R.C. § 6231(a)(7) (2006)) for all of the partnerships applicable to Plaintiffs. Prati I, 81 Fed.Cl. at 426; Pis.’ Mot. (Aug. 8, 2011), at 33, Docket No. 28; see also Behrens Affidavit, at 1 ¶¶4-5, Docket No. 28-1; Behrens Affidavit Attach. A, at 12, Docket No. 28-1A (listing 41 limited partnerships).

Under the TEFRA, partnerships file informational tax returns, reporting on any “ ‘partnership item’ ... required to be taken into account for the partnership’s taxable year.” 96 Stat. at 663 (current version at I.R.C. § 6231(a)(3) (2006)); see also Prati I, 81 Fed.Cl. at 427; 26 CFR § 301.6231(a)(3)-1(b) (2011) (defining “partnership item”); IRS Form 1065 (“U.S. Return of Partnership Income”). With only limited exception, TEFRA deprives this Court and any other tribunal of jurisdiction over tax refund claims by individual partners when the claims are “attributable to partnership items.” 96 Stat. at 668 (current version at I.R.C. § 7422(h) (2006)). Rather, the partnership’s TMP may petition for pre-payment readjustment within 90 days of final notice from the IRS. Id. at 653 (current version at I.R.C. § 6226(a) (2006)).

In 1987, the IRS began to audit and investigate the Amcor partnerships as potential illegal tax shelters. Prati III, 603 F.3d at 1302; Prati I, 81 Fed.Cl. at 424. In 1990 and 1991, the IRS issued notices of final partnership administrative adjustment (“FPAA”) to the limited partnerships, disallowing deductions for “sham transactions.” Prati III, 603 F.3d at 1302; Prati I, 81 Fed.Cl. at 424; see also I.R.C. § 6223 (2006) (defining “FPAA”). The IRS also assessed interest against the individual partners, including penalty interest under the former I.R.C. § 6621(e). Prati III, 603 F.3d at 1303; see also I.R.C. §§ 6621(c)(2), (e)(3)(A)(v) (repealed 1989) (prescribing penalty interest for “[sjubstantial underpayment attributable to tax motivated transactions,” including “any sham or fraudulent transaction”).

Procedural History

The procedural history of the Amcor tax partnership cases is quite complex. A brief summary is as follows.

Initially, non-TMP representatives of the various Amcor partnerships challenged the FPAAs in partnership-level proceedings at the U.S. Tax Court. Prati III, 603 F.3d at 1302. As those proceedings progressed, some partners chose to settle with the IRS in 1997, while others did not. See id. at 1303 (comparing the Pratis who chose to settle with the Deegans who did not). The partners in the present case did not settle. See Isler v. United States, No. 01-344T, Def.’s Mem. Ex. 1 (Jul. 17, 2007), Docket No. 127-1 (listing the partners who did or did not execute settlement agreements).

The settling partners paid their assessments in full and, in 1999, filed partner-level administrative adjustment requests (“AARs”) with the IRS. Prati III, 603 F.3d at 1303. In 2001, the TMPs for the non-settling partners stipulated to non-settlement assessment terms with the IRS, thereby binding non-objecting partners to those terms under Tax Court Rule of Practice and Procedure 248(b)(4). Id.; Behrens Affidavit (Aug. 8, 2011), at 2-4 ¶¶ 13-18, 9-10 ¶¶ 17-21, Docket No. 28-1; see also Behrens Affidavit Attach. C, at 14-20, Docket No. 28-1C (the stipulation). The non-settling but bound partners also paid their assessments and filed partner-level AARs with the IRS. Prati III, 603 F.3d at 1303. Citing the jurisdictional bar of I.R.C. § 7422(h) (2006), the IRS ultimately disallowed both sets of AARs as partner-level refund claims impermissibly pertaining to the adjustment of partnership-level items. Id.

Thereafter, the partners began to file tax refund claims in this Court-129 claims in all. Id.; Prati I, 81 Fed.Cl. at 423.1 Since many [498]*498of the claims, including Plaintiffs’ claims here, presented “virtually identical” factual allegations and sought refunds “based on the exact same legal grounds,” the parties in 2003 selected three cases to serve as representative of those claims. Prati I, 81 Fed.Cl. at 423-24, 424 n. 6; Pis.’ Mot. (Aug. 8, 2011), at 3, Docket No. 28; see also Prati, No. 02-60T (case one); Scuteri v. United States, No. 01-358T (case two); Isler, No. 01-344T (case three). The parties selected Prati to litigate first, as the representative ease on jurisdictional issues, and the various assigned judges stayed the other representative cases pending its disposition. Prati III, 603 F.3d at 1303; Prati v. United States (“Prati II”), 82 Fed.Cl. 373, 374 (2008); Prati I, 81 Fed.Cl. at 425. In 2005, Judge Francis Allegra of this Court lifted the stay in Keener, one of the representative eases. See No. 03-2028T, Order (Mar. 10, 2005), Docket No. 8. The Court reassigned Prati, Isler, and Scuteri to Judge Block in 2006, and implemented procedures to transfer pending cases and to assign future eases involving the Amcor partnerships to him, ultimately 124 out of the 129 cases. Prati I, 81 Fed.Cl.

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102 Fed. Cl. 495, 108 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 7453, 2011 U.S. Claims LEXIS 2340, 2011 WL 6187094, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fournier-v-united-states-uscfc-2011.