Hicks v. United States (In Re Hicks)

241 B.R. 456, 1999 WL 1067572
CourtDistrict Court, D. Arizona
DecidedNovember 22, 1999
DocketCiv. 98-1642PHX-ROS
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 241 B.R. 456 (Hicks v. United States (In Re Hicks)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hicks v. United States (In Re Hicks), 241 B.R. 456, 1999 WL 1067572 (D. Ariz. 1999).

Opinion

ORDER

SILVER, District Judge.

Appellants Robert Wayne Hicks and Janice Virginia Hicks appeal from a bankruptcy court’s decision to grant summary judgment on Appellants’ claims against Appellee. The nature of and basis for Appellants’ arguments are unclear. The first cause of action, entitled “Wrong Party,” appears to allege that the tax liens the Internal Revenue Service placed on Appellants’ property in the amount of $3,978.32 were procedurally improper. 1 (Compl. 4, attached to Appellee’s Copies of Record 1.) Appellants’ remaining causes of action appear to stem from this allegation. Appellants seek to quiet title to the funds in question in Appellants based on the alleged procedural deficiencies in the liens. They request turnover of the property on the same basis. (Id. at 5.) Appellants also ask the Court to “take judicial notice of the Bible as Law.” (Compl. at 9, attached to Appellee’s Copies of Record 1.)

Appellants raise a number of barely comprehensible arguments in support of their claims. Appellants assert that the Internal Revenue Service is not part of the United States Department of the Treasury in part because the Department of the Treasury Seal is “conspicuously missing,” though it is unclear on what document Appellants believe the seal is required to be found or the significance of its alleged absence. (Legal Points in Support of the Appe[ ]llant[s] Position at 3.) In support of this assertion, Appellants state that “[t]he Internal Revenue Service claims to be (3)27” a part of the Department of the Treasury. However there is no reference *458 to the United States Department of the Treasury or Department of the Treasury of the United States. In the absence of where or which the IRS claims to be a part of, nothing is stated to make that official determination. (Id. at 2.) Appellants also fault the Notice of Federal Tax Lien’s apparent “false statement as to the ‘Kind of Tax’ ” (Id. at 9.) According to Appellants, “[t]here is no such thing as a ‘Kind of Tax.’ Court cases have clearly shown that to be lawful, it must show the ‘Type of Tax’ not the ‘Kind of Tax.’ ” (Id.) Appellants make no mention of the case law supporting their assertion. Appellants further allege that “[t]he IRS has NO authority to file a ‘tax lien’ outside of the District of Columbia.” (Id.) They also appear to claim that they never received the required notices informing them of the lien on their property. (Appellant(s) Notice of Initial Brief at 32.) Finally, Appellants assert that “the so called ‘income tax’ [is] strictly ‘voluntary.’ ” (Id. at 10.)

The Court reviews the bankruptcy court’s decision to grant Appellee’s summary judgment motion de novo. Parker v. Community First Bank, 123 F.3d 1243, 1245 (9th Cir.1997). Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c) authorizes the granting of summary judgment “if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file together with the affidavits, if any, show there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Judgment for the moving party must be entered “if, under the governing law, there can be but one reasonable conclusion as to the verdict.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 250, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). “If reasonable minds could differ as to the import of the evidence,” judgment should not be entered in favor of the moving party. Id. at 250-251, 106 S.Ct. 2505.

The moving party bears the initial burden of identifying the elements of the claim in the pleadings, depositions, answers to the interrogatories, affidavits, and other evidence, which the moving party “believes demonstrate the absence of a genuine issue of material fact.” Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). “A material issue of fact is one that affects the outcome of the litigation and requires a trial to resolve the parties’ differing versions of the truth.” S.E.C. v. Seaboard Corp., 677 F.2d 1301, 1305-06 (9th Cir.1982). The burden then shifts to the non-moving party to establish that there is a genuine issue for trial. Celotex, 477 U.S. at 324, 106 S.Ct. 2548. More than a “metaphysical doubt” is required to establish a genuine issue of material fact. Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 586, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986). The parties bear the same substantive burdens of proof as would apply at a trial on the merits. Anderson, 477 U.S. at 252, 106 S.Ct. 2505. In deciding a summary judgment motion, the Court does not weigh the evidence or the credibility of witnesses, rather “the nonmovant’s version of any disputed issue of fact is presumed correct.” Eastman Kodak Co. v. Image Technical Serv., Inc., 504 U.S. 451, 458, 112 S.Ct. 2072, 119 L.Ed.2d 265 (1992).

Appellants’ arguments that the liens were procedurally deficient are groundless. Appellee has provided authenticated copies of Certificates of Assessments and Payments, which document the assessments, notice and demand for payment, and the filing of Notices of Federal Tax Lien in Appellants’ case. (Certificates of Assessments and Payments, attached to Appellee’s Copies of Record 4 and 5 as Ex. 1 and 3.) It well established that Certificates of Assessments and Payments are “probative evidence in and of themselves and, in the absence of contrary evidence, are sufficient to establish that ... assessments were properly made.” Hughes v. United States, 953 F.2d 531, 540 (9th Cir.1992); see also Koff v. United States, 3 F.3d 1297, 1298 (9th Cir.1993), cert. denied, 511 U.S. 1030, 114 S.Ct. 1537, *459 128 L.Ed.2d 190 (1994) (noting that “it is settled in this circuit” that Certificates of Assessment and Payments create a presumption that the assessments were procedurally proper). Thus, the Certificates of Assessments and Payments establish a presumption that the assessments on Appellants’ property were properly made absent persuasive evidence to the contrary. Appellants have offered no such evidence.

Moreover, Appellants’ arguments, like those offered by numerous other tax protestors, are frivolous. Accordingly, the Court will not expend further judicial resources in delineating the basis for their lack of merit in detail. See Kile v. Comm’r of Internal Revenue,

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Bluebook (online)
241 B.R. 456, 1999 WL 1067572, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hicks-v-united-states-in-re-hicks-azd-1999.