Stanback v. Commissioner

27 T.C. 1, 1956 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 70
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedOctober 8, 1956
DocketDocket Nos. 51748, 51749, 51750, 51751
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 27 T.C. 1 (Stanback 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
Stanback v. Commissioner, 27 T.C. 1, 1956 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 70 (tax 1956).

Opinion

OPINION.

FisheR, Judge:

The first question which we must answer is whether either party is collaterally estopped from here litigating the issue of the validity for Federal income tax purposes of the Stanbacks’ family partnership for the years 1943-1949 insofar as it concerns the trusts as partners. The question arises in unusual circumstances. Petitioners urge that a prior decision of this Court (Wachovia Bank & Trust Co., Tax Court Memorandum, Docket Nos. 1899-1902, filed June 22, 1944) represents a previous consideration of the precise issue here before us and that such decision in favor of the petitioners estops the respondent from here and now asserting the invalidity of the family partnership in the years before us. Respondent, on the other hand, urges that the decision in Stanback v. Robertson (M. D., N. C., 1949), affd. (C. A. 4, 1950) 183 F. 2d 889, certiorari denied 340 U. S. 904, holding that for the year 1941 the Stanbacks’ family partnership was not valid for Federal tax purposes (insofar as it included the trustees as partners) collaterally estops the petitioners from here asserting the validity of such partnership for those later years before us.

The issue presented in the earlier Tar Court proceeding was whether the Stanback brothers as grantors of the several family trusts were taxable on the income of such trusts for the years 1938 and 1939. We held that they were not, stating:

we again are called upon to apply what is familiarly known as the doctrine of Helvering v. Clifford, 309 U. S. 331. * * *
*******
The Clifford case has become a prolific source of litigation, as is evidenced by the many cases in- which the application of its rationale has been sought and contested. Efforts to extend the doctrine to less compelling situations have not met with uniform success. The retention of some degree of control by the grantor of a family trust does not require that the trust income necessarily be considered, for tax purposes, that of the grantor. * * * The Clifford doctrine merely demands that in such instances special scrutiny be given the terms of the trusts and all the circumstances attendant upon its creation and operation “lest what is in reality but one economic unit be multiplied by devices which, though valid under State law, are not conclusive insofar as section 22 (a) is concerned.” ⅜ ⅜ *
* ⅜ * \^e can conclude only that the application of the Clifford doctrine is not called for by reason of the terms of the trusts involved here. * * *
* * * Respondent, however, argues that the Clifford doctrine should be applied because of the petitioners’ control of the Stanback Company, partnership interests which constituted the principal asset of the trusts and the sole source of the income with which we are here concerned. ⅜ * *
* * ⅜ ⅜ * * *
the argument is premised on complete and absolute control over the income and assets of the partnership in the hands of petitioners. But the facts do not warrant a finding that they had such control. Petitioners were simply the managing partners in a limited partnership. As such they had the powers and duties commonly appertaining thereto. They operated the business, directed policy, made determinations respecting the need for reserves, and, by reason of such powers, to an extent controlled the amounts distributed to the limited partners each year. However, the existence of these powers did not give them the very substantial control required to invoke the application of the Clifford doctrine. [Emphasis supplied.]
* * * * * * *
We conclude and hqld that petitioners in Docket Nos. 1901 and 1902 are not taxable on the income of the trusts respectively created by them by reason of section 22 (a) of the Revenue Act of 1938 and the Internal Revenue Code.

Respondent’s further contention in that case, based on application of section 167 (a), was also rejected.

As here, petitioners, at the time of the District Court proceeding in respect of the taxable year 1941, advanced the contention that such holding of the Tax Court estopped the respondent from then trying the family partnership issue. The District Court concluded that the prior Tax Court decision did not collaterally estop the respondent from challenging the validity of the partnership, and on appeal the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirming such ruling. After reviewing the principles of collateral estoppel and indicating the precise nature of the question presented previously to the Tax Court, which question was not one of the validity of the family partnership but of the validity of the family trusts, the Court of Appeals stated (183 F. 2d, at p. 894):

Under the Clifford doctrine, control and the duration of a trust are the important factors in determining to whom income is taxable. Since the decision of the Tax Court in the Stanback cases, however, the Supreme Court has laid down the rule that the validity of a family partnership, for tax purposes, depends upon the bona fide intent of the partners to join together in the conduct of the partnership business. Control is now only one of the many factors which must be considered in making this determination. Commissioner v. Culbertson, 337 U. S. 733, 69 S. Ct. 1210, 93 L. Ed. 1659; Lusthaus v. Commissioner, 327 U. S. 293, 66 S. Ct. 539, 90 L. Ed. 679; Commissioner v. Tower, 327 U. S. 280, 66 S. Ct. 532, 90 L. Ed. 679, 164 A. L. R. 1135. Mr. Justice Douglas in the Clifford case, supra, did employ the phrase “bundle of rights” but it is evident that he used these words solely in connection with the question of control. 309 U. S. at page 337, 60 S. Ct. at page 557, 84 L. Ed. 788.
In the cases before the Tax Court upon which appellants rely, the facts were substantially the same as in the present case and partnership income was involved in both instances; but it is apparent from the Tax Court’s opinion that no question was raised as to the validity of the partnership for income tax purposes. The Tax Court m the Stanbaclc cases was concerned only (as was the Supreme Court in the Clifford case) with the question of the allocation of income for tax purposes and never commented on the question of the validity of the partnership for tax purposes, the fundamental issue in the case noto before us. As we have already pointed out, collateral estoppel can be invoiced only where the same issue has actually beex previously litigated. Here the precise issue before us has not been previously adjudicated and, even if it had been, the law applicable to the situation has been altered by supervening decisions of the Supreme Court. [Emphasis supplied.]

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Bluebook (online)
27 T.C. 1, 1956 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 70, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stanback-v-commissioner-tax-1956.