Supornick v. Commissioner

150 F.2d 110, 33 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1507, 1945 U.S. App. LEXIS 4220
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedJune 25, 1945
DocketNo. 12973
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 150 F.2d 110 (Supornick v. Commissioner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Supornick v. Commissioner, 150 F.2d 110, 33 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1507, 1945 U.S. App. LEXIS 4220 (8th Cir. 1945).

Opinion

THOMAS, Circuit Judge.

This case is presented on the petition of Joseph Supornick, a taxpayer, to review a decision of the Tax Court of the United States redetermining deficiencies in petitioner’s income taxes for the years 1940 and 1941. The controversy is whether during the taxable years involved a partnership existed between the petitioner and his two sons, Meyer and David Supornick. The petitioner and his sons, claiming that a partnership existed, filed their returns on that basis. The Commissioner found that the claimed partnership did not exist and adjusted the taxpayer’s return accordingly. On appeal the Tax Court after a full hearing made findings of fact and filed an opinion, unreported, holding “that no valid or bona fide partnership between petitioner and his two sons existed during the taxable years.”

The petitioner contends that the findings and conclusions of the Tax Court are contrary to the evidence and the law; that the evidence conclusively establishes, as a matter of law, the existence of a partnership for the separate taxable years.

Partnership is a legal concept, but the determination of the existence or not of a partnership, as in the case of a trust, involves inferences drawn from an analysis of “all the circumstances attendant on its creation and operation.” Helvering v. Clifford, 309 U.S. 331, 335, 60 S.Ct. 554, 556, 84 L.Ed. 788; Doll v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 8 Cir., 149 F.2d 239.

The Internal Revenue Code provides its own concept of a partnership. Local law is of no importance in this connection. Sections 19.3797 — 1 and 4, Treasury Regulations 103, promulgated under the Internal Revenue Code; Doll v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 8 Cir., 149 [111]*111F.2d 239; Earp v. Jones, 10 Cir., 131 F.2d 292, certiorari denied 318 U.S. 764, 63 S.Ct. 665, 87 L.Ed. 1136.

There is no substantial conflict in the evidence produced before the Tax Court. The contest here relates primarily to the proper inferences to be drawn from the evidence. The function of the Circuit Courts of Appeals in reviewing the findings and conclusions of the Tax Court in tax disputes is well settled. It is the function of the Tax Court to find the facts, to weigh the evidence and to choose "from among conflicting factual inferences and conclusions those which it considers most reasonable.” The Courts of Appeals can not change or add to findings or conclusions of the Tax Court, or reweigh the evidence. This court can not search the record for evidence to support other conflicting inferences and conclusions which may seem more reasonable. We must look primarily upon the evidence in support of the Tax Court’s findings, inferences and conclusions ; and, if we find a substantial basis for such findings present in the evidence, “the process of judicial review is at an end.” Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Scottish American Investment Co., 323 U.S. 119, 124, 65 S.Ct. 169, 171; Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Wemyss, 324 U.S. 303, 65 S.Ct. 652; Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Court Holding Co., 324 U.S. 331, 65 S.Ct. 707; Bingham’s Trust v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 65 S.Ct. 1232; Dobson v. Commissioner, 320 U.S. 489, 64 S.Ct. 239, 88 L.Ed. 248.

Applying these rules and observing these limitations upon our power it will not be necessary to set out all the evidence or all of the findings of the Tax Court. The following findings are supported by the record, and they in turn support the inferences and conclusions of the Tax Court. They must, therefore, be accepted by us as conclusive on review.

The petitioner, 60 years of age in 1943, resides in St: Paul, Minnesota. Since 1915 his principal business has been that of adjusting fire losses as a representative of the insured. In later years he has made substantial investments in real estate and otherwise.

In December, 1936, while on her deathbed, petitioner’s first wife said to him: “I know I am going — I want you to take the boys and keep them near you. Take them in your business. I want you to teach them your business.” At that time the sons, Meyer and David, were respectively 22 and 18 years of age. Meyer was working in his father’s office and David was in college. They had worked for their father at odd hours and during vacations since they were 14 years of age. Except for a period of six or seven months'in 1938 or 1939, Meyer continued to work for his father in the adjusting business through 1939. In 1940 he worked in a store in Minneapolis. Sometime in 1940 he went to California where he considered a proposition to go into business. Petitioner refused to furnish him the money necessary. On February 26, 1941, Meyer was officially registered as the owner of a liquor business. Since May 28, 1941, he has been in the United States Army.

David was in the army from February 29, 1940, to August 28, 1940, also from January 2, 1941, to February 17, 1941, and continuously since March 2, 1942. At intermediate times during 1940 and 1941 both boys were engaged in the adjusting business. Until the end of 1939 they each received salaries when employed by their father. After January, 1940, they had drawing accounts with the office.

Petitioner contends that the contract of partnership rested entirely in parole for the year 1940, and that it was partly reduced to writing for the year 1941. The terms of the oral contract are found in the testimony of the petitioner only, corroborated by the instructions given his bookkeepers and conversations with associates or friends. He testified that in October or November, 1939, he called his sons into his office and said to them:

“Boys, up to now I give everything that a father could give you, I give you private military school education, I pay your insurance, I give you nice home, nice rooms, clothing, I give you everything a father could give. I would like to give you a proposition. From now on, from next year, I would like to put you in as partners in my business, but it is the understanding that you put all your time in, work up in your own name the way I did. * * * You don’t have to put in capital. * * * If you prove that you are doing a good job in a few years I will turn over the entire business to you. * * * From 1940 I will give you 25 per cent of any income that comes in in this office, including the real estate, the insurance, but with one understanding, * * * you will have to [112]*112take care of everything, attend to the real estate, collect the rent, see the property is taken care of in a proper way. * * * Twenty-five per cent of the profit of my business from real estate, insurance, and adjusting will be your pay or profit if you put in all your energy and work up this in your own name. If you do make good, that is what your profit will be. * * * If you go ahead and put your energy, your head in the work, you will get 25 per cent of the profit. Now, if you dó a good job I intend to retire entirely out of this, quit.”

He testified that the boys agreed to that arrangement.

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Related

Walsh v. Commissioner
170 F.2d 535 (Eighth Circuit, 1948)
Appel v. Smith
161 F.2d 121 (Seventh Circuit, 1947)

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Bluebook (online)
150 F.2d 110, 33 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1507, 1945 U.S. App. LEXIS 4220, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/supornick-v-commissioner-ca8-1945.