Hummel & Downing Co. v. Commissioner

19 T.C. 61, 1952 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 68
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedOctober 24, 1952
DocketDocket No. 26283
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 19 T.C. 61 (Hummel & Downing Co. v. Commissioner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Tax Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hummel & Downing Co. v. Commissioner, 19 T.C. 61, 1952 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 68 (tax 1952).

Opinion

OPINION.

Murdock, Judge:

The petitioner was a wholly owned subsidiary of Corn Products Refining Company at all times material hereto prior to December 1, 1941, when it was purchased by Cornell Wood Products Company.

The petitioner had been engaged for many years in manufacturing and selling paper board containers and it manufactured two types of paper board which it used in the construction of the containers. One type of paper board which it manufactured was called jute liner board which consists, by weight, of approximately 75 per cent waste paper and 25 per cent kraft pulp. Kraft pulp is a type of wood pulp. The other type of paper board manufactured by the petitioner is called chip board and is made entirely from waste paper. All of the jute liner board and most of the chip board manufactured by the petitioner was used by it in manufacturing the containers which it sold, but it sold an undisclosed part of its chip board production. Containers made from jute liner board were sold in competition with others fabricated from kraft liner board made entirely from kraft pulp. Most domestic manufacturers of kraft pulp used their entire product to make kraft liner board.

The only grounds for relief urged by the petitioner in its brief are based upon section 722 (b) (2). The only economic event upon which it now relies is an alleged overexpansion of capacity in the domestic kraft pulpmaking industry that occurred late in 1937 and 1938. It contends that that overexpansion depressed its business in 1938 and 1939 and its business was depressed in 1936 and 1937 due to “anticipation” of that overexpansion. The petitioner was not engaged in making kraft pulp but purchased most, if not all, of its kraft pulp from foreign sources. Nevertheless, it attempts to show that its business was depressed by overexpansion in the domestic kraft pulp industry since that overexpansion reduced the price of kraft liner board, a product competing with jute liner board which the petitioner manufactured solely for its own purpose in making containers.

The petitioner filed applications for relief on Form 991 in which it stated that it was claiming relief under section 722 (b) (2). The forms required the taxpayer, inter alia, to describe the temporary economic events unusual in its case or in the case of an industry of which it was a member, upon which it based its claims, to describe the industry which was depressed, and to furnish names and addresses of other members of the industry. The taxpayer typed in at that place on the applications “See attached statement.” The statement contained the following:

The taxpayer’s business was depressed during the base period (1936-1939) because of a price war in the industry, with the result that the taxpayer’s profits during the base period do not represent a true criterion of its normal profits.

The only other information in the statement which would have any bearing on the required explanations or would supply information was a list of the profits of the taxpayer for each of the years 1917 through 1942. Copies of those applications were made a part of the petition. There is nothing before the Court to show that the petitioner ever contended to the Commissioner that it was entitled to relief under section 722 (b) (2) on any ground other than that quoted above.

The Commissioner notified the petitioner that it had not established its right to the relief requested in its applications for relief and of his denial of the claim for refund asserted in those applications “and in the related claim (Form 843), filed January 31, 1946 for the year 1942.” He explained that careful consideration had been given to the applications and the claim above referred to and to “supplements to these claims filed June 15, 1945, June 18, 1947 and August 29, 1947; statement furnished you on January 4, 1946; protest filed January 23, 1946; copy of Eevenue Agent’s report and supplement thereto furnished to you on December 4, 1947; statements made at Field Conferences on December 20, 1946, October 22,1947, and July 21,1948; and conference with the Excess Profits Tax Council on April 19, 1949.” The record contains no copies of or information in regard to the claim on Form 843, the supplements to the claims, or the documents or statements referred to in the above quotation which might have been furnished to the Commissioner of Internal Eevenue.

One of the examples which Congress intended to include within section 722 (b) (2) mentioned in H. Rept. No. 2333, 77th Cong., 1st Sess., 1942-2 C. B. 372, is a price war by members of an industry where, “as a result of sale below cost during those years, the members of the industry sustained losses” after which the members resumed their normal earning level. Eegulations 112, section 35.722-3, at the bottom of page 130, describe a price war in terms of sales below cost. The present record does not indicate that members of the industry to which the petitioner belonged were engaged in a price war of that kind during the base period years. The petitioner does not use the phrase “price war” at any place in its two briefs filed in this proceeding, and a fair conclusion from the entire record is that the petitioner is not now contending that it is entitled to relief under section 722 (b) (2) because during the base period a temporary and unusual event in the form of a “price war” depressed its business or the business of an industry of which it was a member. It states its present contention as follows on page 12 of its reply brief: “it was the unprecedented temporary overexpansion in kraft pulp capacity that constituted the temporary and unusual economic circumstances responsible for the base period depression in its earnings.”

A question naturally arising in the mind of the Court under such circumstances is whether that ground for relief now argued before the Court was ever presented to the Commissioner for his consideration prior to his denial of the applications. Tax Court Eule 63 requires that a copy of the claim or application for refund or relief shall be attached to the petition. The rule refers to the complete applications and claims, including any supplements, amendments, or other additions to the originals. The purpose of that rule is to have it appear in the petition that the grounds for relief and supporting statements of fact relied upon before the Court had been presented to the Commissioner.

Overexpansion in kraft pulp capacity was not presented to the Commissioner in the applications on Form 991 as a ground for relief under section 722 (b) (2) nor were facts to support such a ground for relief set forth in those applications. Furthermore, it does not appear in the present record that such a ground or a statement of facts to support it was ever presented to the Commissioner during his consideration of the applications. His denial of these applications for relief and the claim for refund does not indicate that he considered and rejected any such ground for relief as that now advanced based upon overexpansion in kraft pulp capacity.

The inadequacy of the pleadings in this respect was called to the attention of the petitioner’s counsel during the trial but he made no effort to amend the pleadings or to introduce additional documents in evidence such as supplements to the claims or statements furnished to the Commissioner.

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Related

Metal Hose & Tubing Co. v. Commissioner
21 T.C. 365 (U.S. Tax Court, 1953)
Hummel & Downing Co. v. Commissioner
21 T.C. 231 (U.S. Tax Court, 1953)
Telfair Stockton & Co. v. Commissioner
21 T.C. 239 (U.S. Tax Court, 1953)
Pelton & Crane Co. v. Commissioner
20 T.C. 967 (U.S. Tax Court, 1953)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
19 T.C. 61, 1952 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 68, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hummel-downing-co-v-commissioner-tax-1952.