Jordan v. Commissioner of IRS

• Court: Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
• Decided: September 14, 2001
• Docket: 00-2044
• Status: Published

Opinion

[NOT FOR PUBLICATION–NOT TO BE CITED AS PRECEDENT]

United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit

No. 00-2044

GEORGE R. JORDAN, JR.,

Petitioner, Appellant,

v.

COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE,

Respondent, Appellee.

APPEAL FROM THE ORDERS OF DISMISSAL

AND DECISIONS OF THE UNITED STATES TAX COURT

[Hon. Arthur L. Nims, III, U.S. Tax Court Judge]

Before

Torruella, Circuit Judge, Campbell and Stahl, Senior Circuit Judges.

George R. Jordan, Jr. on brief pro se. Claire Fallon, Acting Assistant Attorney General, David I. Pincus and Laurie Snyder, Attorneys, Tax Division, Department of Justice, on brief for appellee.

September 10, 2001 Per Curiam. After appellant repeatedly failed to

proceed as provided by Tax Court Rule 91(a), filed non-

responsive and evasive replies to orders to show cause, and

failed to appear on the scheduled trial date, the court

dismissed his petitions for redetermination of deficiencies

and additions to the tax, and entered default judgments

against him on those issues as to which respondent bore the

burden of proof including fraud penalties. Upon review of

the record, we perceive no support for appellant's garbled

arguments that the court abused its discretion, violated due

process, or committed any other error. Appellant's

contested motion for a continuance was filed just twenty

days before the scheduled trial date and contained

transparently insufficient excuses for his multiple failures

to cooperate in the pretrial process. The filing of the

motion for a continuance did not excuse appellant's failure

to appear on the scheduled date. See Tax Court Rules 33,

123.

Affirmed.