Johnson v. Commissioner

1 T.C. 1041, 1943 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 172
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedMay 4, 1943
DocketDocket No. 106725
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 1 T.C. 1041 (Johnson 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
Johnson v. Commissioner, 1 T.C. 1041, 1943 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 172 (tax 1943).

Opinion

OPINION.

Hill, Judge:

Issue 1. — The first issue for our decision is whether the • doctrine of res judicata concludes the petitioner from litigating the question here involved because of an adjudication in a prior proceeding. The respondent has affirmatively pleaded res judicata and at the hearing moved for judgment on that ground. We reserved our ruling upon his motion at that time. Bespondent also objected to the introduction of any evidence upon the ground that petitioner was “precluded from proceeding by the doctrine of res judicata.” We •also reserved our ruling on that objection.

The issue in the instant case is what part of the income for the taxable year here involved is allocable to the petitioner’s wife.

Where the causes of action are different a prior judgment is not a bar unless it determined some fact essential to the maintenance of the second action. The estoppel does not extend to matters which might have been but were not litigated. It extends only to those matters or issues which were expressly or by necessary implication adjudicated in the first action. See 2 Freeman on Judgments, 1429. Each tax year gives rise to a new cause of action. Only when the question or right in issue is precisely the same can the prior judgment be res judicata. Tait v. Western Maryland Railway Co., 289 U. S. 620. In applying the doctrine to such subsequent suit on a different cause of action “inquiry must always be as to the point or question actually litigated and determined in the original action.” Cromwell v. County of Sac, 94 U. S. 351. “Any right, fact or matter in issue and directly adjudicated upon, or necessarily involved in, the determination of an action * * * in which a judgment or decree is rendered upon the merits is conclusively settled * * * and can not again be litigated between the parties.” 34 C. J. 743. With these rules before us we look to the prior proceedings to determine what were the issues and matters directly or by necessary implication determined therein.

The prior proceeding involved the taxability of the income of petitioner and his wife from all sources, both within and without community property states. The issue as first presented to the Board in that proceeding was that one-half of all the income was taxable to petitioner’s wife. The Board found that more than one-half of such income belonged to petitioner and held him taxable on the whole of the income. The Circuit Court determined that some part or percentage of the income belonged to petitioner’s wife, but upon the evidence presented it was held impossible to determine what that part was. The Circuit Court reversed the Board’s decision and remanded the case for further hearing by the Board to ascertain and determine what such part or percentage was and to enter its decision accordingly. The evidence presented at the further hearing was held insufficient to show what part or percentage of the income belonged to petitioner and to his wife, respectively, and because of such failure of proof the Board determined that the whole of the income was taxable to petitioner. The Circuit Court affirmed that decision.

Petitioner concedes that the former decision would foreclose him from contending here that he is not taxable on the whole of the income which he received from sources outside the community property states. Such income is not here involved. The income here involved is that derived from property within the States of Texas and New Mexico. Petitioner contends that all of such income is community income of himself and wife and that he is taxable on only one-half thereof. For this position petitioner relies on the community property laws of Texas and New Mexico.

The former proceeding involved income from property, business operations, and salaries outside the community property States of Texas and New Mexico, as well as income from lands and tangible personal property within those states. The instant proceeding involves only income from the latter source. The Texas and New Mexico lands involved in this proceeding are the same lands in those states which were involved in the former proceeding and the ownership thereof has remained unchanged. The Board and the Circuit Court did not. in the former proceeding determine that no part of the income there involved belonged to petitioner’s wife. On the other hand, the Circuit Court recognized that some part, less than one-half, of such income belonged to the wife but held that the evidence did not enable it or the Board to determine what that part was. The character of ownership of the income-producing property or of the income involved in the present proceeding was not determined or adjudicated in the former proceeding. The Circuit Court merely held in that proceeding that petitioner had failed to prove what proportion or percentage, if any, of the purchase price of the lands and income-producing personal property there involved was allocable to the community or joint funds of petitioner and his wife and for that reason held that all of the income therefrom was taxable to petitioner. In the former proceeding the question was not presented to it and the court did not consider or decide whether income from lands and tangible personal property situate in Texas or New Mexico, eyen if separately owned by petitioner, was community property. Therefore, since this is a different cause of action, the prior judgment is not conclusive. See Restatements of Judgments, Tentative Draft No. 1, p. 8. Moreover, nothing was actually decided in the prior proceeding except that petitioner was unable to support the burden of proving just what part of his income was taxable to his wife. The burden of proof in the former proceeding as determined by the Circuit Court on the issues there presented was to trace community property funds into the property and investments which produced the income in the taxable years and to establish thereby the part or percentage of such income which should be allocated to that part of the income-producing property owned jointly or in community. In that proceeding the petitioner was unable to so trace the community funds but contended that there was an inseparable commingling of community property with separately owned property and that the legal effect thereof was to make the whole of the commingled property and the income therefrom either the community or joint property of himself and wife. The court disapproved that contention and, for failure of the proof to establish the part or percentage of the income allocable to jointly owned or community property, held the entire income taxable to petitioner. Thus, even though it were assumed that petitioner’s income in the present taxable year arose from substantially the same property as he held in the taxable years of the former proceeding, the portion of that property and of the income therefrom which belonged to him or to his wife has not been adjudicated. The Commissioner’s determination was sustained merely because petitioner failed to sustain his burden of proof. The issue raised in the instant case was never decided. Thomas Cusack Co., 17 B. T. A. 1105. Cf. Cromwell v. County of Sac, supra.

Therefore, we overrule respondent’s motion and objections on all points in so far as the issue of res judicata is concerned. We hold that res judicata does not apply to the facts here.

Issue H.

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Hannegan v. Johnson
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Johnson v. Commissioner
1 T.C. 1041 (U.S. Tax Court, 1943)

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Bluebook (online)
1 T.C. 1041, 1943 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 172, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-commissioner-tax-1943.