Murray v. United States

15 Cl. Ct. 17, 61 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1246, 1988 U.S. Claims LEXIS 108, 1988 WL 55067
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedJune 2, 1988
DocketNo. 541-85T
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 15 Cl. Ct. 17 (Murray v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Murray v. United States, 15 Cl. Ct. 17, 61 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1246, 1988 U.S. Claims LEXIS 108, 1988 WL 55067 (cc 1988).

Opinion

OPINION

NETTESHEIM, Judge.

This case is before the court on cross-motions for summary judgment. The Federal Circuit vacated a judgment of dismissal entered by Senior Judge White upon his decision that the complaint failed to state the required elements of a taking claim. The remand instructed the court to adjudicate plaintiffs’ claim that the Internal Revenue Service’s extinguishment of plaintiffs’ lien by refusing to allow them to redeem the encumbered property and conveying it to a superior lienholder constituted a taking under the fifth amendment to the U.S. [18]*18Constitution. Murray v. United States, 817 F.2d 1580 (Fed.Cir.1987), vacating and remanding 10 Cl.Ct. 696 (1986). After the case was fully briefed, it was transferred to this court on April 11, 1988. Supplemental briefing was ordered, followed by oral argument.1

FACTS

The following facts are undisputed. During 1978 plaintiffs James A. Murray, Justin L. Murray, and Joan M. Murray (“plaintiffs”) had a tenant farming arrangement with Donald A. Paul on plaintiffs’ farm located near Buffalo, North Dakota. This arrangement provided that plaintiffs would receive 50 percent of the yearly harvest profits. Plaintiffs’ share of the 1978 harvest was approximately $59,-000. However, these monies were utilized by Mr. Paul for personal, farming, and business expenses.

In recognition of his indebtedness to plaintiffs, on December 20, 1978, Mr. Paul executed a note payable to plaintiffs in the amount of $59,000, compounded at 8-per-cent interest from March 1, 1979, due on July 1, 1979. The note was secured by a short-term mortgage with plaintiffs as mortgagees on the realty of Mr. Paul’s restaurant-nightclub business known as Fireside, Inc. (“Fireside”). The mortgage on Fireside was executed by Mr. Paul as President on December 20, 1978, and recorded in the Register of Deeds office for Cass County, North Dakota, on that date.

Fireside, incorporated under the laws of North Dakota, was owned by Mr. Paul and Charles Wellentin. Mr. Paul contributed $40,000 and Mr. Wellentin contributed $10,-000 to the establishment of Fireside in January 1976. In turn, Mr. Paul received 40,-000 and Mr. Wellentin, 10,000 shares of stock, at a par value of $1.00 per share. Fireside’s 1978 Annual Report for the year ending June 30, 1978, was filed on December 14, 1978, and signed by Mr. Paul as President. It listed Messrs. Paul and Wel-lentin as the sole directors — Mr. Paul serving as President and Vice-President and Mr. Wellentin, as Secretary and Treasurer.

At the time Mr. Paul executed the mortgage to plaintiffs, Fireside already was subject to a first mortgage in the amount of approximately $92,000 held by the Cas-selton State Bank and recorded on February 9, 1976. Prior tax liens also existed in favor of the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) totalling approximately $25,000, which had been recorded between October 27, 1977, and December 20, 1978.

The IRS seized Fireside’s real estate and personal property on April 18, 1979, for failure to remit federal income taxes. On June 8, 1979, after notice to Fireside, the real property was sold by auction for $301.84, to the United States, as the sole bidder. An IRS District Director’s Deed memorializing the sale was executed on November 30, 1979.

On August 13 and September 9, 1979, plaintiffs tendered a check in the amount of $320.00 in order to redeem the property. The IRS denied plaintiffs’ request by letters dated August 23 and October 4, 1979. In its August 23, 1979 denial, the IRS stated:

As he [IRS Officer Gordon Sorum] informed you on July 9, 1979, when you came to this office, there was [sic] some questions as to the validity of the mortgage you hold against the Fireside property since it was executed in [sic] behalf of one officer of the Corporation for a personal debt....

Letter dated August 23, 1979, from Joyce L. Gasing, IRS District Group Manager, to James A. Murray. In its October 4, 1979 letter, the IRS also took the position that plaintiffs’ lien was not valid. The property was not redeemed within 120 days after sale, thereby exhausting the statutory right of redemption. On March 5, 1980, the United States conveyed Fireside’s real property for $301.84 to the Casselton State Bank, holder of the first mortgage.

[19]*19Two suits to obtain Fireside or damages for the refusal to allow plaintiffs to redeem the property were filed by one or more plaintiffs in federal district court. In Murray v. United States, 520 F.Supp. 1207 (D.N.D.1981), aff'd, 686 F.2d 1320 (8th Cir. 1982), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1147, 103 S.Ct. 788, 74 L.Ed.2d 994 (1983), plaintiffs unsuccessfully sought to establish a waiver of sovereign immunity and, hence, subject matter jurisdiction in federal court on the theory that mandamus was available to quiet title to Fireside or, alternatively, on the theory that a suit for damages could be maintained under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1346(b) (1982). Subsequently, in Murray v. United States, 585 F.Supp. 543 (D.N.D.), aff'd, 751 F.2d 271 (8th Cir.1984) (per curiam), plaintiffs’ reliance on the federal mandamus statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1361 (1982), was rejected for failure to state a claim.

Plaintiffs filed their complaint in this court on September 17, 1985. On September 11, 1986, Senior Judge White dismissed the complaint because the statute under which the IRS acted did not mandate the payment of money; because no violation of the due process clause was stated; because plaintiffs as inferior lienholders did not own the Fireside property and therefore did not have a property interest that could be taken; and because the actions of the IRS, at best, only prevented plaintiffs from exercising their lien, but did not amount to a taking. Murray, 10 Cl.Ct. at 698-99.

DISCUSSION

On appeal the Federal Circuit characterized plaintiffs’ property interest under the laws of North Dakota as a lien on the property, in contrast to title to the real estate, and stated that the fifth amendment recognizes a mortgagee’s lien as a property interest. Murray, 817 F.2d at 1583-84. Plaintiffs contended that “because their mortgage was ‘destroyed’ when the IRS refused to allow them to redeem the property, it was taken by the government....” Id. at 1583. On the basis that taking jurisprudence has recognized the destruction of materialmen’s liens as compensable property and plaintiffs’ mortgage is the same type of interest, the appellate court held that by failing to allow plaintiffs to redeem the mortgaged property, the IRS extinguished their lien. Id. Having concluded that plaintiffs had stated “all of the required elements of a taking claim,” id. at 1584, the Federal Circuit remanded the case with instructions to adjudicate that claim. The Federal Circuit has established the law of the case, and the statutory scheme under which plaintiffs’ claim arose is set out only to provide context for the arguments now urged.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Centerstate Bank Central Florida, N.A. v. Krause
87 So. 3d 25 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2012)
Bair v. United States
80 Fed. Cl. 287 (Federal Claims, 2007)
Hartle v. United States
22 Cl. Ct. 843 (Court of Claims, 1991)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
15 Cl. Ct. 17, 61 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1246, 1988 U.S. Claims LEXIS 108, 1988 WL 55067, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/murray-v-united-states-cc-1988.