Mesher v. United States

736 F. Supp. 233, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5363, 1990 WL 57737
CourtDistrict Court, D. Oregon
DecidedMay 1, 1990
DocketCiv. No. 90-43-FR
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 736 F. Supp. 233 (Mesher v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mesher v. United States, 736 F. Supp. 233, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5363, 1990 WL 57737 (D. Or. 1990).

Opinion

OPINION

FRYE, District Judge:

Plaintiff, Brent J. Mesher, commenced this action pursuant to 26 U.S.C. § 7429 to obtain summary review of a jeopardy assessment made against him for unpaid federal income taxes and the penalties thereon for the tax years 1981 through 1988 in the aggregate total amount of $1,105,371.00. The government moves for summary judgment (# 16) on the grounds that no genuine issue of material fact remains with regard to the reasonableness of the jeopardy assessment made against Mesher and the appropriateness of the amount of the jeopardy assessment. Mesher has cross-moved for summary judgment in his favor (# 31).

The court held a hearing on March 12, 1990. At the conclusion of the evidence, the court ruled that the jeopardy assessment was proper, but allowed the parties further time to brief the issues as to whether 1) the levy and seizure of the Rotenberg note was wrongful; 2) the levy upon Mesher’s life insurance policy was proper; and 3) the levy upon Mesher’s assets in the custody of the United States Marshal was proper.

UNDISPUTED FACTS

In February and March, 1989, large amounts of currency, cashiers checks, and coins were seized by the government from safe-deposit boxes in Mesher’s name in a number of local banks. Prior to this seizure, Mesher had paid substantial sums of money for goods and services either by cash or by cashiers checks purchased with cash.

On February 24, 1989, Mesher was arrested in possession of three kilograms of cocaine. On March 22, 1989, Mesher was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of possessing narcotics with the intent to distribute them, and of structuring cash transactions to avoid the filing requirements of the law. On April 10, 1989, Mesh-er entered pleas of guilty to both counts in the indictment. On June 25, 1989, judgments of conviction were entered, and Mesher was sentenced to imprisonment for a term of 136 months on Count 1 and 60 months on Count 2, the terms of the confinement to run concurrently with each other.

In connection with the prosecution of the criminal case, a civil forfeiture action was filed entitled United States v. $625,100 in United States Currency, Civil No. 89-516-FR. Mesher filed a claim to the property at issue. On September 20, 1989, a stipulated judgment of forfeiture was entered whereby Mesher forfeited to the government property worth approximately one million dollars as proceeds from illegal drug trafficking activities. Pursuant to the settlement agreement, certain properties valued at some $85,031 were to be returned to Mesher. Before the property [235]*235could be returned to Mesher pursuant to the stipulated judgment, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) seized the property.

Mesher has reported the following financial information on prior tax returns:

Year Adjusted Gross Taxable Income
1981 $17,019.00 $10,871.00
1982 (438.00) (7,027.00)
1983 4,958.00 517.00
1984 10,278.00 9,278.00
1985 11,745.00 10,705.00
1986 21,340.00 10,856.00
1987 11,256.00 6,816.00
1988 0.00 0.00

Memorandum in Support of Motion for Summary Judgment, p. 6, para. 30.

The government contends that the jeopardy assessment is reasonable because Mesher accumulated extremely large amounts of money through drug dealings and concealed his assets from the government.

Mesher contends that the jeopardy assessment is unreasonable as a matter of law because 1) he has been in custody since February 24, 1989; 2) he pled guilty to one count of cocaine distribution and one count of laundering drug money and provided information as to the location of his storage locker; 3) he had a safe-deposit box, to which his mother had a key, containing $150,000 in currency, which was not discovered by the government agents until three weeks after his arrest, and from which his mother had no authority to remove the money; 4) he has met with government agents on several occasions to provide information about drug trafficking; 5) pursuant to a stipulated agreement of forfeiture with the United States, he forfeited approximately one million dollars in currency and assets; and 6) he has set forth in a sworn statement that he is not concealing any other assets and has offered to freeze most of his remaining assets until his tax liability is determined by the tax court.

ANALYSIS

The Internal Revenue Code authorizes immediate assessment of taxes without pri- or notice, and summary action to collect the assessed taxes, when collection of the taxes may be jeopardized by delay, 26 U.S.C. §§ 6861 and 6851 (a jeopardy assessment). The IRS regulations provide for a jeopardy assessment when a taxpayer “appears to be designing quickly to place his ... property beyond the reach of the government, either by removing it from the United States, by concealing it, by dissipating it, or by transferring it to other persons.” Internal Revenue Code Regulations at 1.6851-1(a)(1). To ameliorate the hardships that may result from jeopardy assessments, the taxpayer is permitted, under section 7429(b), to obtain summary review by a federal district court of the reasonableness of the making of the assessment and the appropriateness of the amount assessed. 26 U.S.C. § 7429(b).

A jeopardy assessment is not intended to establish a taxpayer’s ultimate liability for the taxes at issue. Ultimate tax liability can be challenged in any proceeding brought at a later date by the taxpayer in a tax court. The scope of the jeopardy determination under section 7429 is limited to two questions: 1) whether the jeopardy assessment was reasonable under the circumstances; and 2) whether the amount assessed was appropriate. See Klotzman v. United States, 618 F.Supp. 112, 113 (D.Md.1985).

The burden of proving that the jeopardy assessment was reasonable is upon the government. 26 U.S.C. § 7429(g)(1). In considering whether the making of a jeopardy assessment is reasonable under the circumstances, the court typically considers the following facts:

(1) Possession of, or dealing in, large amounts of cash.
(2) Possession of narcotics or evidence of other illegal activities.
(3) Prior tax returns reporting little or no income despite the taxpayer’s possession of large amounts of cash.
(4) Dissipation of assets through forfeiture, expenditures for attorneys’ fees, appearance bonds, and other expenses.
(5) The lack of assets from which potential tax liability can be collected.
[236]*236(6) Use of aliases, which makes it more difficult to locate either the taxpayer or any of his assets.

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Bluebook (online)
736 F. Supp. 233, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5363, 1990 WL 57737, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mesher-v-united-states-ord-1990.