Rietzke v. Commissioner

40 T.C. 443, 1963 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 111
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedMay 29, 1963
DocketDocket No. 91484
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 40 T.C. 443 (Rietzke v. Commissioner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Tax Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rietzke v. Commissioner, 40 T.C. 443, 1963 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 111 (tax 1963).

Opinion

OPINION

Keen, Judge:

Issue 1

The primary question to be decided is whether the payments made by petitioner to Commerce, Fidelity, and National Bank give rise to deductions for losses incurred in a trade or business or losses incurred in a transaction entered into for profit though not connected with a trade or business,1 or expenses incurred for the production of income.2 or whether they constitute business bad debt deductions, or are deductible only as nonbusiness bad debts.3

Respondent contends that the payments give rise to bad debt deductions instead of losses deductible under other provisions of the internal revenue laws. Respondent further contends that the bad debts are deductible only as nonbusiness bad debts and therefore must be treated as a loss from the sale of a capital asset held for not more than 6 months.

Petitioner concedes that by the payments made pursuant to his endorsement of Lacy’s obligation to National Bank he became subrogated to National Bank’s creditor rights against Lacy’s and that such payments could only be deducted under the bad debt provisions of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. It is argued, however, that the losses sustained on the National Bank note are deductible as business bad debts incurred in petitioner’s trade or business. With respect to the losses sustained on the payments to Fidelity and Commerce under tire settlement agreement of December 28, 1953, petitioner’s primary contention is that the losses are deductible under the provisions of section 23(e) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939 and section 165(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. In the alternative, petitioner con: tends that, if respondent properly determined that petitioner’s losses upon the payments made to Fidelity and Commerce constituted bad debts, then such bad debts are deductible as ordinary losses as business bad debts incurred in petitioner’s trade or business.

We shall first consider the losses sustained with respect to the payments made on the National Bank note. Petitioner contends that his activities as an employee in securing financing for Lacy’s and endorsing its obligations constituted his trade or business and that, consequently, the bad debts resulting from his subrogation to these obligations constituted debts “incurred in the taxpayer’s trade or bush ness” and were deductible in full.

Petitioner in his argument relies heavily on Trent v. Commissioner, 291 F. 2d 669, reversing 34 T.C. 910.

In the recent case of Whipple v. Commissioner, 373 U.S. 193, the Supreme Court expressly refrained from either approving or disapproving the Trent case, but in its opinion it indicated that it considered the Trent case to be inapplicable where “there is no proof * * * that the loan [giving rise to the claimed business bad debt] was necessary to keep his [the employee’s] job or was otherwise proximately related to maintaining his trade or business as an employee.” (Emphasis supplied.)

On the record before us we are unable to conclude that the petitioner, upon whom the burden of proof rests herein, has proved that he was required to guarantee these loans in order to keep his job or to maintain his trade or business as an employee. There is no proof that the guaranteeing of corporate loans was a required duty of petitioner as chairman of the board or that Lacy’s took corporate action requesting him to do so. There is only the broad testimony that as chairman he was charged with the responsibility of arranging for the financing of Lacy’s.

We point out that petitioner had for all practical purposes a considerable proprietary interest in Lacy’s by reason of his stockholding in Capitol Eadio, and was substantially, even though indirectly, the beneficiary of dividend payments in the amount of $129,000 paid by Lacy’s to Capitol Eadio. We are unable to conclude that petitioner has successfully borne his burden of proving that this proprietary interest did not provide the dominant motive in his making the guarantees here in question. See George P. Weddle, 39 T.C. 493, 498.

We shall next consider the losses sustained with respect to the payments made to Fidelity and Commerce pursuant to the contract executed on December 28, 1953. It is well settled that deductions for bad debts are governed by sections 23 (k) and 166 of the Internal Eevenue Codes of 1939 and 1954, respectively. If a taxpayer’s loss results from the worthlessness of a debt then other provisions of the internal revenue laws relating to deductions for ordinary losses are not applicable. Spring City Foundry Co. v. Commissioner, 292 U.S. 182.

In Putnam v. Commissioner, 352 U.S. 82, the Supreme Court held that a loss sustained in discharge of an obligation as guarantor was a nonbusiness bad debt to be given short-term capital loss treatment. In so holding, the Court stated at page 85:

The familiar rule is that, instanter upon the payment by the guarantor of the debt, the debtor’s obligation to the creditor becomes an obligation to the guarantor, not a new debt, but, by subrogation, the result of the shift of the original debt from the creditor to the guarantor who steps into the creditor’s shoes.

It may also be stated as a general rule that a person is not entitled to be subrogated to the rights of a creditor until the claim of the creditor against the debtor has been paid in full. American Surety Co. v. Electric Co., 296 U.S. 133. This rule obtains in New Jersey, the State in which the contract of December 28, 1953, was executed. See Daily v. Somberg, 28 N.J. 372, 146 A. 2d 676. The rationale of this rule protects the creditor so that he may obtain full satisfaction of the debt. If the guarantor who made a partial payment were sub-rogated pro tanto he would hold a position of equality with the holder of the debt for which the guarantor is bound, and the loss may then fall equally upon the creditor and the guarantor. Accordingly, a guarantor liable only for part of a debt does not become subrogated to remedies available to a creditor unless he pays the whole debt or it is otherwise satisfied. See United States v. National Surety Co., 254 U.S. 73.

Thus petitioner could obtain no right of subrogation against Lacy’s until the claims of the creditors, Fidelity and Commerce, were satisfied. Pursuant to the contract of December 28, 1953, between petitioner on the one hand and Fidelity and Commerce on the other, petitioner only paid $100,000 in settlement of claims of the banks which aggregated $200,000 and possibly more if the purchasers of merchandise defaulted on their obligations.

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Rietzke v. Commissioner
40 T.C. 443 (U.S. Tax Court, 1963)

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Bluebook (online)
40 T.C. 443, 1963 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 111, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rietzke-v-commissioner-tax-1963.