In re Salsbury Motors, Inc.

104 F. Supp. 482, 41 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1274, 1951 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3733
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. California
DecidedDecember 17, 1951
DocketNo. 45207
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 104 F. Supp. 482 (In re Salsbury Motors, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.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 Salsbury Motors, Inc., 104 F. Supp. 482, 41 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1274, 1951 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3733 (S.D. Cal. 1951).

Opinion

WESTOVER, District Judge.

The within bankruptcy proceedings were commenced August 20, 1947, when the above named debtor filed a petition under Chapter XI of the Bankruptcy Act, 11 U.S.C.A. § 701 et seq.

During the bankruptcy proceedings the Collector of Internal Revenue filed a claim for Federal Insurance Contributions, withholding, Federal unemployment taxes and manufacturers’ excise tax in the sum of $27,-760.'58. The Collector of Internal. Revenue was scheduled as a preferred creditor and received notice of all proceedings. The claim of $27,760.58 was ordered paid by .the Referee and was subsequently paid by the Receiver.

The debtor proposed a Plan of Arrangement. After due notice to all creditors, including the Collector of Internal Revenue, a Second Amended Plan of Arrangement proposed by the debtor was confirmed on July 30, 1948, and the order has become final.

Article II of the second-amended plan of arrangment provided:

“That there be transferred and returned to the debtor, all of the real property and personal property referred to and sought to be sold to the Brown-Bevis Company under an order confirming sale to them on February 16, 1948, free and clear of all liens, claims and rights of all secured or unsecured persons, and free and clear of all claims of dischargeable and nondischargeable debts except the lien in favor of a bank or lending institution in the amount of Five Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($550,000.00) * * * protecting the debtor and the assets so returned to the debtor from suits, claims and liens in respect to said assets, and substituting in lieu thereof, for the parties asserting such cláims, the right to file a claim with the above entitled court and to be paid from the assets in the hands of George T. Goggin as receiver * *

The Order Confirming Debtor’s Second Amended Plan of Arrangement provided in part:

“It Is Further Ordered that a sale heretofore confirmed to Brown-Bevis Company, of certain assets of this corporation, be and the same is hereby dis-affirmed, that said assets .covered by said Order Confirming Sale are hereby vested in and adjudged to be the property of the'debtor corporation, free and clear of all liens, claims and rights of, all creditors and persons, and free and clear of all claims of dischargeable and non-dischargeable debts except the lien-in favor of the Bank of America National Trust and Savings Associa-' tion to secure a note in the amount of
[484]*484$550,000.00, which note shall be secured by a deed of trust and chattel mortgage * *

Under the second amended plan of arrangement, the debtor corporation borrowed from the Bank of America National Trust & Savings Association $550,000, of which sum $500,000 was to be used to pay off the various creditors of the corporation. It was distinctly provided by Order of the Bankruptcy Court that

“* * * there is substituted in lieu of said liens and claims of creditors, the sum of $500,000.00, being received by George T. Goggin, as receiver, as part of the debtor’s Second Amended Plan of Arrangement, and that all persons and parties shall have the right to file a claim with the above entitled court and be paid from the assets in the hands of said George T. Goggin, as receiver, such amounts as the court may adjudge and determine, * *

Prior to filing the original petition under Chapter XI of the Bankruptcy Act on August 20, 1947, that is, on February 27, 1947, the debtor herein had filed with the Collector of Internal Revenue an application for a tentative carry-back adjustment under Section 3780 of the Internal Revenue Code, 26 U.S.C.A. § 3780. After a cursory examination of the application by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (and before the filing of the petition under Chapter XI of the Bankruptcy Act) the applicant received a refund of $74,120.18 from Internal Revenue. Subsequently, the Bureau of Internal Revenue caused an audit to be made of the carry-back adjustment and as a consequence discovered the debtor corporation had been paid $17,480.73 more than it was entitled to receive under the provisions of the carry-back adjustment procedure.

The Collector of Internal Revenue amended the original tax claim filed in the within proceedings, based upon the overpayment of refund. After correspondence and consultation between the representatives of the Collector of Internal Revenue and counsel for Receiver, the Collector withdrew his claim for $17,480.73, stating by letter:

“Since it appears said claim was not timely filed and upon advice from the Chief Counsel for the Bureau, said claim is hereby withdrawn from further consideration * * *”

On March 2, 1950, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue assessed taxes in the sum of $17,480.73 against the debtor corporation, under the provisions of Section 3780 (c) of the Internal Revenue Code. On November 15, 1950, an Order to Show Cause was issued by the Referee in Bankruptcy, directing the Collector of Internal Revenue to show cause why an order should not be entered, enjoining collection of the assessment of March 2, 1950 from the debt- or or its assets.

Subsequently, and on February 13, 1951, an Order was entered, restraining the Collector for the 6th District of California from asserting a claim for the overpayment against Salsbury Motors, Inc. This petition for review was filed to review the order of the Referee which restrained the Collector from asserting a claim against the debtor corporation.

It is the position of the debtor corporation that under the second amended plan of arrangment the property of the bankrupt was free and clear of all debts and liabilities, including the claim of the Collector of Internal Revenue for the money which had been erroneously claimed by taxpayer and refunded to it. The debtor points out that there were substituted certain moneys, then in the hands of the Receiver to pay all of such claims, and it appears that the Receiver had and now has in his possession sufficient money to pay the claim in full, had it been timely filed.

The Receiver contends that inasmuch as the claim was not timely filed, although he does have the money to pay the claim and it was contemplated in the arrangement that the claim would be paid, nevertheless, he does not have any authority to pay it.

Internal Revenue contends, on the other hand, that the debtor corporation by the [485]*485adoption of the second amended plan of arrangement did not absolve itself of the Government’s lien upon the corporate assets, and that it is entitled to a lien until the money is actually paid.

.Section 17 of the Bankruptcy Act, 11 U.S.C.A. § 35, provides that taxes are not a dischargeable debt. And Section 371 of the Bankruptcy Act, 11 U.S.C.A. § 771, specifically exempts from operation of discharge the debts specified in Section 17 of the Bankruptcy Act.

The United States of America, in filing its petition for review of the Referee’s order, raises three issues:

1. The Referee in Bankruptcy erred in concluding that the Collector of Internal Revenue (or the United States of America) by failing to file a claim within the one-year date of the filing of the proceedings is barred from asserting claims against the assets in the hands of the Receiver, or against the debtor corporation, for internal revenue taxes;

2.

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Related

Golden v. State of California
285 P.2d 49 (California Court of Appeal, 1955)

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Bluebook (online)
104 F. Supp. 482, 41 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1274, 1951 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3733, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-salsbury-motors-inc-casd-1951.