Martin v. United States

101 Fed. Cl. 664, 108 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 7378, 2011 U.S. Claims LEXIS 2300, 2011 WL 6035557
United States Court of Federal Claims·Decided December 5, 2011·No. No. 03-2272 T·Published·Cited by 29 cases

Opinion

OPINION

DAMICH, Judge:

Pending in this AMCOR tax case is Plaintiffs’ motion for reconsideration, filed August 5, 2011, regarding certain limitations and penalty interest claims. In their motion, Plaintiffs first question whether these claims were reinstated when final judgment against them was vacated on July 1, 2008. If their claims were not reinstated, they question whether the decision in the test case on these claims, Prati v. United States, 81 Fed.Cl. 422 (2008) (“Prati I”), constitutes the law of the case in their ease. Even if their claims were dismissed based on the decisions in Prati, Plaintiffs here seek reconsideration on the grounds of “intervening controlling authority, new evidence, and need to avoid manifest injustice.”

For the reasons stated below, Plaintiffs motion for reconsideration is denied.

I. Background

Plaintiffs seek a tax refund relating to their investment in certain limited partnerships that were part of a group of similarly structured partnerships managed by American Agri-Corp., Inc. (“AMCOR”) in the 1980s. The partnerships were designed “to generate a large loss in the first year, allowing each partner to claim a tax deduction averaging twice the size of his investment, with the excess loss to be recaptured in subsequent years.” Prati v. United States, 603 F.3d 1301, 1302 (Fed. Cir.2010) (“Prati [667]*667Ill ”). In the late 1980s, however, the AM-COR partnerships were audited and investigated by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), which subsequently issued Final Partnership Administrative Adjustments (“FPAAs”) disallowing the deductions. The AMCOR partnerships’ members were ultimately assessed additional taxes and in some cases penalty interest, for which they seek (or have sought) refunds in the Court of Federal Claims.

More than 100 AMCOR tax refund cases were eventually filed in this court. The AM-COR plaintiffs, represented by the same counsel, and the Government jointly filed notice with the court that the cases here were indirectly related. The parties selected three representative cases by which to resolve common issues of law and fact. These representative cases were Isler, Case No. 1-344; Prati, Case No. 2-60; and Scuteri, Case No. 1-358.

The Martins’ complaint asserted four categories of claims: 1) that the IRS’s assessment of taxes due was made after a limitations period, based on 26 U.S.C. § 6501, had expired (the “limitations” or “untimely assessment” claim); 2) that the IRS had improperly imposed a penalty interest rate under former 26 U.S.C. § 6621(e) (the “penalty interest” or “tax-motivated (‘TMI’) refund” claim); 3) that interest should have been abated under 26 U.S.C. § 6404(e) (the “abatement” claim); and 4) that the IRS may have backdated assessments. In their instant motion for reconsideration, the Plaintiffs note that the United States Supreme Court has held that the Court of Federal Claims has no jurisdiction over § 6404(e) claims, Hinck v. United States, 550 U.S. 501, 127 S.Ct. 2011, 167 L.Ed.2d 888 (2007) and that therefore these claims are no longer before this court. In addition, on August 5, 2011, the Plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their backdated assessment claims.

Thus, the only claims remaining — and the subject of the motion for reconsideration— are their limitations and penalty interest claims.

II. Procedural Posture of This Case

Most of the AMCOR eases in the Court of Federal Claims eventually were transferred to, or originally assigned to, Judge Lawrence Block. Pursuant to a chart jointly proffered by the parties, the Prati case was deemed by the court as representative of the limitations and penalty interest claims, shared by 76 of the other AMCOR cases. This group of 77 cases were not, however, formally consolidated on the court’s docket.

On April 16, 2008, Judge Block issued his opinion in Prati, 81 Fed. Cl. 422 (2008), granting the Government’s motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. The court first noted that § 7422(h) of the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 (“TEFRA”) deprives courts of jurisdiction to hear a partner’s refund claim where the refund is “attributable to partnership items.” Id. at 429. It then held that

Whether categorized as a ‘partnership item’ or as an ‘affected item,’ the Court is without jurisdiction to adjudicate the statute of limitations issue plaintiffs raise in this partner-level proceeding. This is because any resulting refund here would be ‘attributable to’ partnership items within the meaning of § 7244(h) ...

Id. at 433.

With respect to the penalty interest issue, the court noted the application of former § 6621(c), which imposed a 120 percent interest rate as a penalty for a taxpayer’s substantial underpayment attributable to “tax-motivated transactions.” Id. at 437. The definition of “tax motivated transaction” included “any sham or fraudulent transaction.” Id. at 438. Because the determination of a sham or fraudulent transaction “must be done on the partnership level,” id., and because the plaintiffs failed to challenge the sham transaction allegations in the partnership proceeding before the Tax Court, “they cannot now be heard on this issue. This Court simply has no jurisdiction.” Id. at 439.

Judge Block noted that the 76 other eases presented factual allegations “virtually identical to the named representative ease.” Id. at 423 n. 2 (listing the 76 eases). Accordingly, in granting the Government’s motion to [668]*668dismiss and denying the Pratis’ motion for summary judgment, he also “ORDERED that all 76 other related cases cited in footnote 2 of this opinion are hereby DISMISSED for lack of jurisdiction.” Id. at 440 (emphasis in original).

Judgment was entered on the docket of Prat% as well as separately in all of the other 76 cases on April 18, 2008. See, e.g., Martin, No. 03-2272, Docket No. 13 (“JUDGMENT entered, pursuant to Rule 58, that all claims by the plaintiffs are dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.”).

On May 2, 2008, however, the Martins filed a motion to vacate the judgment entered against them as a result of the Prati I decision. They acknowledged the dismissal of all 77 cases covered by the Prati decision, but argued that final judgment against them was inappropriate because they had also pled an individual issue — the then-extant backdated assessment claim — that was not common to the Prati I group of 77 cases (or addressed therein). “Therefore, by resolving the § 6229(a) [limitations] and § 6621(c) [penalty interest] issues the Prati opinion resolved all issues in most, but not all, of the 77 cases. In a small number of those eases the partner also pled issues arising from his individual circumstances.” Pis.’ Mot. to Vacate J. at 2.

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Martin v. United States, 101 Fed. Cl. 664, 108 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 7378, 2011 U.S. Claims LEXIS 2300, 2011 WL 6035557 (uscfc 2011).

101 Fed. Cl. 664 (Martin v. United States) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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