In Re Osborne

159 B.R. 570, 1993 Bankr. LEXIS 1524, 1993 WL 405944
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Court, C.D. California
DecidedOctober 8, 1993
DocketBankruptcy SB91-18247 MG
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 159 B.R. 570 (In Re Osborne) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Court, C.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Osborne, 159 B.R. 570, 1993 Bankr. LEXIS 1524, 1993 WL 405944 (Cal. 1993).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM & ORDER

MITCHEL R. GOLDBERG, Bankruptcy Judge.

On June 16, 1993, this matter came before the Court for hearing on the debtor’s objection to the Internal Revenue Service’s Supplemental Claim and Amendment to Proof of Claim No. 4 filed on April 10,1992 and November 30, 1992. For the reasons set forth below, I sustain the objection in part and overrule the objection in part. This decision memorializes the reasoning and conclusions of law that the Court presented in its ruling at the June 16th hearing.

FACTS

The facts in this case are not in dispute. Rex and Helen Osborne (“debtors” or “Osborne”) filed a joint petition for relief under Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code on July 24, 1991. The debtors listed their respective social security numbers, as well as the employer identification number (“EIN”) for their business. In their petition, the debtors scheduled, as priority unsecured debt, income and payroll taxes for tax years 1985 through 1987 in the amount of $9,228 ari'd income taxes for tax years 1989 through 1990 in the amount of $16,000.

On September 6, 1991, the Court noticed all parties in interest of the scheduled dates for (1) the meeting of creditors, (2) the confirmation hearing and (3) the claims bar date. The Court set the bar date for filing timely proof of claims for December 31, 1991.

In the Chapter 13 plan that the debtors submitted to the Court, they provided for the IRS, as an unsecured priority claim, to be paid in full the amount indicated in the schedules ($25,228.00). The Court confirmed the debtors’ plan on October 2, 1991.

On December 24, 1991, the IRS timely filed a proof of claim in the amount of $11,764.10 for personal income taxes for taxable years 1985 through 1989. The amounts due for the years 1988 and 1989 *573 were based on estimated liability. The IRS did not include any claims for federal payroll taxes on this timely filed claim.

On April 10, 1992, the IRS filed a “supplemental” claim in the amount of $31,-470.32 for personal income taxes for taxable years 1986 through 1990. Again, the IRS did not include any payroll taxes on this supplemental claim. On November 30, 1992, however, the IRS filed a claim in the total amount of $214,287.69, identifying it as an amendment to the April 10th claim. This claim listed personal income tax liabilities for tax years 1985 through 1990 and federal payroll taxes for various taxable periods during tax years 1983 through 1986.

The debtors objected to both the supplemental and the amended claims on several grounds. First, debtors objected to the inclusion of the year 1990 in the supplemental claim, since it did not appear on the original proof of claim. Second, the debtors disputed the supplemental claim, since the IRS dramatically increased the amounts due for tax years 1989 and 1990. Finally, the debtors argued that the portion of the amended claim related to payroll taxes should not be allowed because it was untimely filed since those taxes were of a dissimilar kind, type and nature.

In its response papers, the IRS contended that all the taxes stemmed from the same generic origin and therefore, all of its amendments must be allowed. In addition, the IRS asserted that even if it filed its priority claim regarding payroll taxes untimely, the Court could not disallow priority unsecured claims under 11 U.S.C. § 502.

ISSUES

From the parties' respective pleadings, I limited the matter to two issues, which were addressed at the hearing on June 16, 1993. The first issue is whether the amended IRS claims included taxes from the same generic origin or whether the taxes were of a type dissimilar in kind from those taxes in the original timely filed proof of claim. The second issue is whether the Court, under 11 U.S.C. § 502, must allow the IRS claims as unsecured priority claims notwithstanding the fact that the amended proof of claims are untimely.

I have determined that the IRS could amend the claim for income taxes, since these were the type of taxes included in the timely filed proof of claim. All amended claims for federal payroll taxes, however, I disallowed as untimely.

TYPE OF TAX

A creditor is permitted to file a proof of claim after the bar date when the proof of claim is an amendment to a timely filed claim but not when the proof constitutes a separate and distinct claim. Menick v. Hoffman, 205 F.2d 365, 368 (9th Cir.1953). The IRS relies on Menick to support its position that the November 30, 1992 proof of claim is allowable as an amendment to its April 30, 1992 proof of claim. In Menick, The IRS timely filed a proof of claim representing withholding taxes for the first quarter of 1950 ($510) and federal insurance contribution act taxes for the first quarter of 1950 ($84). Six months after the bar date and without a request for an extension of time to file a claim, the IRS field an “amended additional claim” for income taxes due in the amount of $5,215.32. Id.

The Menick court found that the amended claim was not “an entirely new, different, separate and distinct claim” of the United States. Id. at 368. The court noted that the initial claim “was for unpaid income taxes although the instrument itemizes the nature of the tax as ‘withholding’ ” tax. Id. “Withholding taxes,” the court explained, “are income which the employer must deduct from the wages of employees and for the payment of which tax the employer is liable to the government.” Id. Thus, the court concluded, “[bjoth are demands of the same generic origin” and “[tjhere is no change in the basic ground for recovery that is set out in the earlier claim on file ...” Id.

The court also observed that “the text of each of the two verified statements of indebtedness expressly show a conjoint and correlative nature of the debt to be the *574 internal revenue taxes due to the United States.” Id. Furthermore, the court found that “the questioned claim ... contains only a statement of additional items amplifying a species of tax relationship and obligation that was asserted in the original claim and continued to exist between the bankrupt and the sovereign taxing authority relative to internal revenue taxes.” Id.

According to the IRS, Menick applied a very broad reading of “taxes” to the claims before it. Therefore, because the federal employment taxes in the November 30, 1992 proof of claim are of the same general origin as the income taxes filed in the original claim, the claim should be allowed as an amendment.

Bankruptcy courts, however, have been reluctant to extend Menick beyond the particular facts involved. See, e.g., In re International Horizons, Inc., 751 F.2d 1213

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Bluebook (online)
159 B.R. 570, 1993 Bankr. LEXIS 1524, 1993 WL 405944, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-osborne-cacb-1993.