Investment & Securities Co. v. Robbins

49 F. Supp. 620, 30 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1281, 1943 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2704
District Court, E.D. Washington·Decided March 31, 1943·No. No. 235·Published·Cited by 9 cases

Opinion

SCHWELLENBACH, District Judge.

This case involves that portion of the controversy concerning the tax problems of Judson G. Rosebush of which disposition was not made in the case of United States v. Rosebush, D.C., 45 F.Supp. 664. In that opinion will be found a statement concerning the tax and assessment involved here. The assessment appeared on the Commissioner’s list which was received by the Collector of Internal Revenue at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on February 18, 1934. Demand for payment was made on Febrúary 27, 1934.

This action was commenced by Charles P. Robbins, Shareholders Agent for the shareholders of the Exchange National Bank of Spokane, Washington. It is in the nature of an interpleader. Robbins has deposited in this Court sixty-five hundred dollars ($6,500), being the amount of Rosebush’s share of the dividends on account of assessments paid by him on his shares in the Exchange National Bank, a national banking association which, in 1928, became insolvent and which assessments were paid by him in 1929. The record discloses that Robbins was appointed as Shareholders Agent in 1936 after all creditors of the insolvent bank had been paid in full and that since that date Robbins has liquidated all of the assets then turned over to him by the Receiver of the insolvent bank. Rosebush and his wife, Barbara McNaughton Rosebush, were joined as parties in this action and were both served with process. Neither of them appeared and defaults have been entered against them.

The Investment and Securities Company, a Washington corporation, intervened in the action and asserted its claim to the fund on the basis of an assignment to it on July 27, 1937, by which Rosebush pledged any recovery to which he might be entitled as security for the balance of the indebted[622] ness due by Rosebush to Investment and Security Company (hereafter called the Intervenor.) The correspondence leading up to the assignment and the assignment itself clearly show that it was made with knowledge of the asserted lien by the United States for taxes. The assignment itself specifically stated that it was subsequent and junior to such lien if one existed. It is conceded that the Intervenor filed notice of the assignment with Robbins on March 14, 1938.

The United States and Frank J. Kuhl, Collector of Internal Revenue for Wisconsin, have both appeared and they both assert the right of the Government to this money on the basis of the claim of tax lien and also on the basis of a writ of fieri facias issued out of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin November 27, 1941, by virtue of a judgment in favor of the United States against Rosebush in the amount of $37,220.-85, for the taxes noted in the Commissioner’s assessment list in 1934.

Since whatever right the Intervenor acquired under the assignment of July 27, 1937, was junior and inferior to a tax lien of the Government, the primary question in this case is whether, on that date, the Government had a lien against the right which Rosebush assigned to the Intervenor. Intervenor alleges in its complaint and contends in its brief that, if the Government had a lien, such lien was ineffective as to it because of the failure to file notice of the lien in the State of Washington. The Intervenor contends that the situs of the property was here and that it, as pledgee, acquired a right superior to that of the Government. The error in this reasoning by the Intervenor arises from the fact that, in 1937, 26 U.S.C.A., § 1562 (now Title 26 U.S.C.A. Int.Rev.Code Sec. 3672) applied only as to a mortgagee, purchaser or judgment creditor. The word “pledgee” was not inserted until the act was amended on June 29, 1939, 53 Stat. 882, which amended the Internal Revenue Code of 1939, 53 Stat. 449. At no place does the 1936 Revenue Act,- 26 U.S.C.A. Int.Rev. Acts, page 813 et seq. refer to this question. (See Report, Ways and Means Committee, House of Representatives; 76th Cong.- 1st 'Session, #855, p. 25 and 26; Report, Finance Committee, U. S. Senate, 76th Cong. 1st Session, #648, p. 10; Congressional Record, Vol. 84, pt. 7, p. 7482, 7500. The retroactive features of the 1939 amendment applied only to subsection (b) which involved purchasers of securities “without notice or knowledge of the existence of such lien.”

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Investment & Securities Co. v. Robbins, 49 F. Supp. 620, 30 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1281, 1943 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2704 (E.D. Wash. 1943).

49 F. Supp. 620 (Investment & Securities Co. v. Robbins) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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