Lee Brick & Tile Co. v. United States

132 F.R.D. 414, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14285, 1990 WL 157347
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. North Carolina
DecidedOctober 1, 1990
DocketNo. C-89-908-D
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 132 F.R.D. 414 (Lee Brick & Tile Co. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lee Brick & Tile Co. v. United States, 132 F.R.D. 414, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14285, 1990 WL 157347 (M.D.N.C. 1990).

Opinion

ORDER

RUSSELL A. ELIASON, United States Magistrate.

Plaintiff Lee Brick and Tile Company, Inc. moves to compel discovery prior to being required to respond to defendant’s motion to dismiss. The defendant (government) contends such discovery is unnecessary, seeks a protective order against answering it or against further discovery and requests that plaintiff respond forthwith to the motion to dismiss. The resolution of this discovery dispute cannot be made without first taking a peek at the merits of the underlying controversy.

I. Factual Background

Plaintiff filed a refund claim for federal income taxes for the period ending March 31, 1985. Plaintiff alleges that it timely mailed, hence filed, its refund claim on June 13, 1988 which is prior to the limitations period of June 17, 1988 in accordance with 26 U.S.C. § 6511(a).1 The Internal Revenue Service disallowed plaintiff’s claim for a refund. It has not been able to locate any refund requests from plaintiff sent on or about June 13, 1988. Plaintiff filed this action pursuant to 26 U.S.C. § 7422 to recover the refund.

The government has filed a motion to dismiss the complaint for lack of jurisdiction. It states that not until May 29, 1989 did it receive any documents which it was willing to treat as a request for a refund. The government contends this Court lacks jurisdiction over plaintiff’s refund request because it was filed outside the applicable three-year statute' of limitations and, therefore, is untimely in accordance with 26 U.S.C. §§ 6511(a) and 7422(a). It argues the request for refund must actually be received by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) on or prior to the deadline or else, in accordance with 26 U.S.C. § 7502, the IRS must have received the document (in this case the refund request) and the taxpayer must produce proof that he mailed the refund request on or prior to the deadline by establishing a postmark on the document or a registered or certified mail receipt. The government attaches to its motion to dismiss, a declaration from an employee of the IRS, who states in conclusory terms that she made a diligent search of the appropriate records but has not found any record that on June 13, 1988 plaintiff filed a refund request or that any refund request for the income taxes was filed before May 25, 1989.

Plaintiff served interrogatories directed to defendant requesting information on steps taken to locate plaintiff’s refund request, the investigation procedures and whether the IRS has lost other tax information or received complaints. The government objected to these interrogatory requests on the grounds that they were irrelevant, overbroad and unduly burdensome because the issue was whether plaintiff filed a timely claim for a refund and not whether the IRS lost the document. Plaintiff also asked whether the IRS received an income tax return from plaintiff for the fiscal year ending March 31, 1988, which was mailed within a few days of the alleged lost refund claim. Defendant states it will produce the document if it [417]*417exists but plaintiff counters that so far defendant has not produced a copy of that return, intimating that it too may have been lost. In accordance with Rule 34, Fed.R.Civ.P., plaintiff further requested the production of various documents including all income tax returns, amended returns, refund claims, correspondence and checks involving plaintiffs taxes for the years 1985 through 1990, and all correspondence or documents of any kind from plaintiff or sent to plaintiff. Defendant produced some of this information but apparently not all of it, especially the 1988 tax return.

In support of its motion to compel, plaintiff attaches the affidavit of its president, Frank Perry, who testifies that on June 13, 1988 he signed a federal tax refund request for $54,367.00 and a state tax refund request for $7,549.00 and took both requests to the United States Post Office in Sanford, North Carolina, and mailed them. He states that in due time he received the refund from the State of North Carolina but not from the IRS. Plaintiff also included a certificate from the director of the North Carolina Corporate Income Tax Division producing a certified copy of the state tax refund request submitted by plaintiff and dated June 13, 1988. These documents do not show a postmark or when they were received but they do indicate that the refund claim was in fact paid on September 16, 1988.

On June 13, 1988, Mr. Perry also signed the federal and state tax return for the year ending March 31, 1988 showing tax liability in the respective amounts of $451,-430.00 and $90,955.00. Because these returns require the plaintiff to pay money, the bookkeeper was instructed to not mail the returns until June 15, 1988, which she did. This is corroborated by her affidavit.

ISSUES

Because the IRS cannot find the refund request, the government asserts that plaintiff can only show timely filing by producing a registered or certified mail receipt, which it cannot do. It further claims that plaintiff cannot conduct any discovery concerning whether the IRS actually received the refund request once it produces evidence that it searched for the document and reports it cannot be found.

Plaintiff relies on the Fourth Circuit’s decision in Curry v. C.I.R., 571 F.2d 1306 (4th Cir.1978). In that case, the court held that a prison inmate’s petition for a redetermination of tax deficiencies would be regarded as having been timely filed where, on the day before the statutory deadline, the inmate had placed the documents in the prison mail but prison officials caused a delay in mailing to the IRS. The government contends that Curry is limited to the special situation concerning prison inmates. However, a close reading of Curry does not support that position. For the following reasons, the government’s motion for a protective order shall be denied and plaintiff shall be granted limited discovery rights.

II. Discussion

A timely filing of a refund claim is a jurisdictional prerequisite for a tax refund action in this Court. 26 U.S.C. § 7422(a). The taxpayer has the burden of establishing this Court’s jurisdiction over its action. Miller v. United States, 784 F.2d 728, 729 (6th Cir.1986). If disagreement over the Court’s subject matter jurisdiction involves factual disputes, the Court has leeway to develop a record through live testimony, affidavits or other procedures as may be appropriate. Redman v. C.I.R., 820 F.2d 209, 211 (6th Cir.1987). The taxpayer must prove the jurisdictional facts by a preponderance of the evidence. H.S. & H. Ltd. of Columbia, Ill. v. United States,

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Bluebook (online)
132 F.R.D. 414, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14285, 1990 WL 157347, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lee-brick-tile-co-v-united-states-ncmd-1990.