Moses v. United States

43 F.2d 653, 9 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 148, 1930 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1345, 9 A.F.T.R. (RIA) 148
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedJuly 31, 1930
DocketNo. 4134
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 43 F.2d 653 (Moses v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Moses v. United States, 43 F.2d 653, 9 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 148, 1930 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1345, 9 A.F.T.R. (RIA) 148 (E.D.N.Y. 1930).

Opinion

INCH, District Judge.

On November 11, 1929, plaintiffs, as executors of the estate of Benjamin Adrianee, deceased, commenced this action against the United States, to recover the sum of $52,-516.36. Issue having been raised by the defendant, the suit came on for trial before me without a jury.

The answer of the defendant, in addition to denials, etc., contains two, separate defenses; the first, in substance, being that the plaintiffs have no cause of action because of a certain waiver or consent duly executed by them, and the second that plaintiffs’ cause of action is outlawed and barred by the statute of limitations.

All the facts are contained in a stipulation and supplemental stipulation offered in evidence and made part of the record.

The sole questions to be decided are law questions.

Before referring to the facts necessary for a decision, it may be said that the action presented is not only an interesting and somewhat difficult one, but one where the temptation is found both by counsel and the court to wander from the real issue which is somewhat obseured by incidental matters.

The court has had the benefit of most excellent briefs prepared by counsel for both parties. On the trial plaintiffs were allowed to amend their complaint 'by ponforming same to the agreed and stipulated facts.

There was and is no intimation of any surprise on the part of the defendant nor could there well be, nor was any new cause of action thus introduced, for, in spite of the [655]*655effort of the pleader to cover all possible reasons for a recovery in their complaint and a possible wavering from one position to another, the real issue presented by the complaint and answer is sufficiently clear and the said amendment is but one of the admitted facts to be considered in deciding the law.

Both the plaintiff executors are residents of this district.

On March 1, 1916, Benjamin Adrianee, apparently a.resident of New Jersey, filed his income tax return for the calendar year 1915. This return shows that his tax was $466.83. It was duly paid.

The following year, and on March 31, 1917, Mr. Adrianee filed his inc'ome tax return for the year 1916. This disclosed an income tax of $82,502.84. A few months thereafter Mr. Adrianee paid this tax to the government.

About a year and one-half afterwards, and on January 3, 1919, Mr. Adrianee died. Plaintiffs became the executors of his estate.

Three years afterwards and on January 11, 1922, plaintiffs, as such executors, determined that there had been a mistake made by Mr. Adrianee in these two returns of his for 1915 and 1916, and they thereupon filed amended income returns, asserting and disclosing that for the year of 1915 Mr. Adri-anee’s income tax should have been $52,983.-24 instead of $466.83, and asserting and disclosing that the income tax of Mr. Adrianee for the year 1916 should have been $1,114.-25 instead of $82,502.84.

Assuming that the government would find that they were correct, the plaintiffs, as such executors, at the same time, to wit, January 11, 1922, filed a claim for a refund of $28,-872.18 of the income tax of Mr. Adrianee for the year of 1916, which had been paid by Mr. Adrianee on June 14, 1917.

This claim for a refund set forth the reasons for it; they being, in substance, that the income tax return of Mr. Adrianee had been improperly prepared due to the unfamiliarity of his bookkeeper with the income tax law and the transactions involved, and that a' large part of the income so reported for the year 1916 had been received in December, 1915, and should have been reported in the return for the year 1915 and not 1916.

This claim further asserted that Mr. Adrianee owed $52,984.24 for the year 1915 and that he only owed $1,114.25 for the year 1916, and as Mr. Adrianee had paid all these taxes the sum of $28,872.18 should be refunded to the executors.

The following year, and on April 4,1923, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue notified the plaintiffs, by letter, that a redetermi-nation of the taxes of Mr. Adrianee for the years of 1915 and 1916 had been made, and that the result of this was that Mr. Adrianee had been overassessed for the year 1916 in the sum of $91,388.59 (an additional assessment of $10,000, having been determined on December 19, 1919, but was afterwards vacated and is not involved in this suit), and that an additional tax for the year of 1915 of $52,516.36’had been assessed.

This was substantially in conformity with the claim of the plaintiffs.

About two weeks thereafter, on April 20, 1923, the plaintiffs, as executors, signed and transmitted to the Commissioner a paper, which had been sent to them from his office, and which is entitled“Agreement Consenting to Assessment of Additional Tax.”

This agreement was not signed by the Commissioner or the Secretary of Treasury or any officer so far as I can see. It was signed by the two executors. By it they stated that they “hereby consent to immediate assessment of the additional tax aggregating $52,516.36 as indicated by letter from the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Washington, D. C., dated April 4, 1923,”

Following their signatures is a printed notice commencing with: “For your information,” etc. It calls attention of the taxpayer to his right to have 30 days’ delay, but that if they agree to the finding, action on the overassessment can be expedited by signing and returning the agreement without delay.

It is this paper that defendant refers to in its first defense, claiming that it constituted a deliberate agreement and consent to the assessment of this additional tax for the year of 1915 and thereby extended the time in which the Commissioner could make the collection of the tax for the year of 1915 which was otherwise barred, according to plaintiffs, by the statute of limitations.

Section 250(d), Revenue Act of 1921 (42 Stat. 227), allowed the Commissioner five ■years after a return was filed to determine and assess the tax “unless both the Commissioner and the taxpayer consent in writing to a later determination, assessment, and collection of the tax.”

The plaintiffs, in support of their contention that this was not such a consent, as[656]*656sert that it was never signed by the Commissioner, that tbe statute of limitations as to the collection of the 1915 tax had long since run, and that it was never the intention of either the Commissioner or the plaintiffs that it should be the formal agreement contemplated by the statute above referred to.

A number of decisions of the United States Board of Tax Appeals are cited by plaintiff. Sherman v. Commissioner, 16 B. T. A. 786; Chadbourne v. Commissioner, 16 B. T. A. 961. Also decisions by 'courts. Greylock Mills v. Commissioner, 31 F.(2d) 655 (C. C. A. 2); W. P. Brown v. Commissioner (C. C. A.) 38 F.(2d) 425; Botany Mills v. U. S., 278 U. S. 282, 49 S. Ct. 129, 73 L. Ed. 379; Joy Floral Co. v. Commissioner, 58 App. D. C. 277, 29 F.(2d) 865; Spear v. Heiner (D. C.) 34 F.(2d) 795; Columbian Iron Works v. Brock (D. C.) 38 F.(2d) 816; Pictorial Co. v. Commissioner (C. C. A.) 38 F.(2d) 563.

It can be seen therefore that some form of this question has bieen before various courts with various results, and it is now stated that the question is pending before the United States Supreme Court. W. P. Brown

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Bluebook (online)
43 F.2d 653, 9 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 148, 1930 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1345, 9 A.F.T.R. (RIA) 148, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moses-v-united-states-nyed-1930.