Jefferson v. Commissioner

50 T.C. 963, 1968 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 60
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedSeptember 26, 1968
DocketDocket No. 3585-67
StatusPublished
Cited by51 cases

This text of 50 T.C. 963 (Jefferson 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
Jefferson v. Commissioner, 50 T.C. 963, 1968 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 60 (tax 1968).

Opinion

Dawson, Judge:

Respondent determined a deficiency of $599.90 in petitioner’s income tax for the year 1963. The single question presented is whether petitioner is entitled to a capital loss carryover deduction of $1,000 in the year 1963 arising out of a sale of property in 1961 for less than its purchase price.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Theodore B. Jefferson (herein referred to as petitioner) and his wife Elsie R. Jefferson, now deceased, filed their 1963 Federal income tax return with the district director of internal revenue at Chicago, Ill. Petitioner was a resident of Skokie, Ill., at the time he filed his petition in this proceeding.

Petitioner is an engineer who entered into the publishing business about 1940. His occupation was listed in his 1963 Federal income tax return as “publishing.” Beginning in 1937 petitioner purchased and sold over the course of years several pieces of real estate which were utilized for both business and residential purposes. A vacant lot in Kansas City, Mo., was purchased by him in 1937 and was sold in 1950 at approximately a $2,000 profit. He purchased an industrial building on three lots in Kansas City, Mo., in 1940 which was sold at a $4,000 profit in 1948. In 1945 he purchased a house and vacant lot next door to his personal residence in Skokie, Ill., which he sold at a $7,000 profit 7 years later. He purchased three lots adjacent to this land in 1951 and erected a house which is his present residence.

In order to prevent publicity of his real estate transactions, petitioner formed in 1957 a wholly owned corporation, the Diamond-J Corp., through which he purchased for $30,000 in February 1957 a building in Skokie, Ill., which was remodeled and used in his publishing business. Shortly after the purchase, petitioner was offered $33,000 for the building which is presently valued at over $50,000. Additional purchases of real estate were made by the Diamond-J Corp. in 1958 when it acquired a store and an apartment in Morton Grove, Ill., which have been rented since that time, and in 1962 when two vacant lots adjacent to the store were acquired and converted into parking lots.

In 1960 petitioner purchased in his own name a summer house on Lake Michigan which was sold 4 years later, after the death of his wife, at a $1,000 loss. The house was never rented. In 1965 he purchased a mansion and 28 acres of land in Deerfield, Ill., which have been rented since that time. Petitioner acquired in his own name in January 1968 property with two parking lots in Morton Grove, Ill., which has been rented since that time.

Throughout this period the petitioner’s personal residence and publishing business were located in Skokie, Ill.

Petitioners’ parents resided in a house in Kansas City, Mo., which they purchased for approximately $25,000 and which was located in “one of the finest residential areas in Kansas City” near a country club. After the death of her husband, petitioner’s mother continued to occupy the house. However, in 1953 she began to express concern about its management. In January 1953 petitioner agreed to purchase the house from his mother at the appraised real estate value when she was ready to sell “so she would be relieved from the worry of selling the house,” and because “it would be a good buy for a profit-making proposition.” He gave her $2,000 “earnest money” at that time.

In 1958 petitioner’s mother decided to sell the house, and petitioner paid her $16,500, a sum equal to its appraised value at that time. She continued to live in the house without paying rent until 1960 when, at the age of 79, she moved to Skokie, Ill., to live with petitioner. During tbe period after 1958 when she occupied the house, petitioner made several improvements in it, including a new furnace, a new driveway, and new overhead garage doors. Petitioner’s mother did not drive an automobile at that time.

The house was placed on the market for sale in 1960 at a price of $18,500 which was recommended by a real estate dealer. It remained unoccupied for approximately 20 months before a sale was made for $15,750 on November 27,1961. Petitioner was charged an additional fee of $540 in connection with financing arrangements.

Petitioner entered into the transaction involving the purchase and sale of his mother’s house primarily for profit.

On his 1961 Federal income tax return, petitioner listed the cost of the house and improvements as $17,553.47 and expenses of sale as $1,964.40 and calculated a capital loss of $3,767.87. He claimed a capital loss deduction of $1,000 on each of his income tax returns for the years 1961,1962, and 1963.

Eespondent disallowed the claimed deductions for the years 1961 and 1962, and petitioner filed a petition for redetermination with this Court. In Theodore B. Jefferson v. Commissioner, docket No. 322-65, T.C. Memo. 1967-151, we held that petitioner failed to prove ithat he entered into the transaction with his mother primarily for profit and denied for the years 1961 and 1962 any deduction arising out of the transaction.

OPINION

Petitioner asserts that he has introduced sufficient evidence into this record to establish that the purchase and sale of his mother’s residence was a transaction entered into primarily for profit rendering the sustained loss deductible under section 165(c) (2), I.E.C. 1954,1 subject to the limitation of section 1211 (b) 2 and the carryover provisions of section 1212(b) (1) (B).3 Petitioner has expressly denied that he has engaged at any time in the purchase and sale of real estate as a trade or business.

Despite the fact that the issue in controversy here turns upon an ultimate fact litigated in the prior proceeding in this Court, respondent did not raise in his answer or by motion the defense of collateral estoppel4 and does not rely upon the defense in his argument. See Walter Wilson Flora, 47 T.C. 410 (1967).

Res judicata, as well as the related doctrine of collateral estoppel, operates not as a jurisdictional bar but by way of estoppel. See Scholla v. Scholla, 201 F. 2d 211 (C.A.D.C. 1953), certiorari denied 345 U.S. 966. “And the policy underlying res judicata is not self-executing, since a prior adjudication must be properly pleaded or otherwise called to the court’s attention.” 1B Moore’s, Federal Practice, par. 0.405[1] (2d ed. 1965). Thus, it has been held that the parties may agree that a prior judgment will not operate as a bar. Riordan v. Ferguson, 147 F. 2d 983 (C.A. 2, 1945). The well-established rule in this Court is that collateral estoppel and res judicata are affirmative defenses which must be pleaded. Arthur D. Thomson, 42 T.C. 825 (1964), affirmed sub nom. Metcalf v. Commissioner, 343 F. 2d 66 (C.A. 1, 1965); Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad Co., 32 T.C. 43 (1959), affd. 279 F. 2d 368 (C.A. 10, 1960); Benjamin R. Britt, 40 B.T.A. 790 (1939), affd. 114 F. 2d 10 (C.A. 4, 1940); Reserve Natural Gas Co. of Louisiana, 15 B.T.A. 951 (1929); see Rule 14(5), Tax Court Rules of Practice.

The consequence of respondent’s failure to plead collateral estoppel or to make it the subject of a motion must be that the defense is not available to him. Such is the general rule under common law, code, and modern pleading.

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Bluebook (online)
50 T.C. 963, 1968 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 60, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jefferson-v-commissioner-tax-1968.