Stallforth v. Commissioner

6 T.C. 140, 1946 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 308
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedJanuary 29, 1946
DocketDocket No. 5926
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 6 T.C. 140 (Stallforth 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
Stallforth v. Commissioner, 6 T.C. 140, 1946 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 308 (tax 1946).

Opinion

OPINION.

Disney, Judge:

The petitioner contends that compensation received by him in 1941 for services rendered over a period from September 3,1935, to January 10,1941, was, in determining the deficiency for 1941, erroneously included in gross income and that his tax liability should be computed under the provisions of section 107 (a), Internal Revenue Code.1 The respondent contends that petitioner’s tax liability is not determinable under section 107 (a) because the compensation received in 1941 was not in payment of services covering a period of sixty calendar months or more as required by that section, but that the services for which the compensation was paid in 1941 began in November 1935 and terminated on or about July 26, 1939, and hence the services covered a period of only forty-five months.

In his 1941 income tax return the petitioner reported no income whatever. In determining the deficiency the Commissioner included in taxable income $150,645.36 ($168,645.36 gross income, less $18,000 deductible expenses) as compensation received and allowed a deduction of $2,230.26 interest paid.

The amount received by petitioner as compensation in 1941 is not in dispute, nor is it disputed that the amount received was compensation for personal services rendered by him, and that the amount received in 1941 represented at least 75 per centum of the total compensation received. The parties disagree as to the period during which his services were rendered.

That petitioner’s services began in November 1935 and that such month is includible in determining the period fixed by the statute is conceded by the respondent. In our opinion the evidence would not support a finding that petitioner’s employment commenced prior to November 1935.

In support of his contention that petitioner’s services for which the compensation was paid in 1941 were concluded in July 1939, the respondent states, among other things, that the compensation was paid under the last agreement of July 26, 1939; that such agreement did not require the performance of further or additional services; that the German Government never contested the decision of the Mixed Claims Commission of June 15, 1939, or the awards made pursuant thereto; that nothing resulted insofar as the sabotage claims were concerned from the conversations and conferences which petitioner held in Rome and in Berlin in 1940; that in 1939 Europe was in a state of war and petitioner was in no position to negotiate any further with the German Government with respect to the sabotage claims; that petitioner performed no services in obtaining evidence of any kind and submitting the same to the Commission; and that in view of the favorable decision of the Mixed Claims Commission of June 15,1939, its awards on October 30,1939, and the certification of the awards by the Secretary of State to the Secretary of the Treasury on October 31, 1939, there was nothing which the petitioner could have done thereafter toward settling the sabotage claims.

The record shows clearly that the agreements of February 2, 1938, and July 26,1939, were negotiated and entered into between petitioner and Peto, an official of both the Canadian Co. and Agency and the one most active throughout the prosecution of the claims, and that at least from 1938 on, petitioner’s dealings were primarily with Peto. Peto [testified that he entered into the contract of July 26, 1939, with petitioner because “we wished to retain his services throughout”; that he agreed to retain petitioner’s services “on his representations that he still thought that he could get the German Government not to take any active steps in opposing the decision of the Mixed Claims Commission” ; that the agreement of July 26, 1939,. was “a compromise for Mr. Stallforth’s services up to the time when the case was settled one way or the other”; that his company had call upon petitioner’s services in connection with the claims until January 10,1941; and that “we did carry Mr. Stallforth and demand his services because we expected to use him if, as and when the Supreme Court rendered a decision unfavorable to our cause.” The record further shows that the petitioner did render services at various times throughout 1938, 1939, and 1940 at the request of Peto or McCloy or with their active cooperation and knowledge, and that during the years from 1935 to 1941 petitioner was reimbursed by Agency for expenses incurred by him during such period in rendering such services, including expenses incurred on his trip to Europe in 1940. McCloy, although not chief counsel for Agency, acted as counsel for it in certain matters connected with the claims. Obviously Agency would not have reimbursed petitioner for such expenses bad his services not been performed at its request and in its behalf. That nothing resulted from petitioner’s negotiations is not material. It appears also that the refusal of the German agent to sign the formal papers necessary for the submission of the Munich agreement to the Commission was due in large part to the efforts and opposition of the prior award holders to the carrying out of such agreement and the allowance of the sabotage claims, although the great majority of awards to the protesting award holders had been entered following settlements reached in substantially the same manner as was the Munich settlement; that on March 1, 1939, the German commissioner withdrew from the Commission; that on receiving notice of a meeting of the Commission to be held on June 15, 1939, the German Embassy advised the Secretary of State that, since the withdrawal of the German commissioner, the Commission was incompetent to make decisions, and that on October 3, 1939, the German Charge d’Affaires addressed an elaborate communication to the Secretary of State making a detailed statement with respect to the alleged illegal acts of the umpire j in making his decision of June 15, 1939, and protesting against all further measures by the umpire, the American commissioner and the American agent which were aimed at securing awards in the Black! Tom and Kingsland cases. (Z. & F. Assets Realization Corporation v. Hull, 311 U. S. 470, 483, 484.) The action of the German commissioner and the position taken by the German Government gave the! prior award holders grounds for bringing their suit to restrain pay-1 ment of the awards. No one knew what the decision of the Court off Appeals would be, and the same is true of the decision of the Supreme Court. Counsel for the German shipowners and award holders testified that he was consulted by counsel for the American award holders prior to the institution of the proceedings in the District Court, and he and other counsel were of the opinion that the Mixed Claims Commission was functus officio and that the awards were invalid, and that this opinion in that connection was heightened by the granting of certiorari by the Supreme Court. He also corroborated petitioner’s testimony that after October 30, 1939, negotiations were under way between the sabotage claimants and the two American award holders who had brought suit, and others, to end the litigation, and that petitioner conferred with him in that respect on several occasions. Under the circumstances the continued efforts of Peto and petitioner to obtain the consent of the German Government to the entry of the awards or to settle with the prior award holders were not wholly without reason or unjustified. In any event the services were performed by petitioner.

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Stallforth v. Commissioner
6 T.C. 140 (U.S. Tax Court, 1946)

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Bluebook (online)
6 T.C. 140, 1946 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 308, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stallforth-v-commissioner-tax-1946.