U. S. Thermo Control Co. v. The United States. Thermo King Corporation v. The United States

372 F.2d 964, 178 Ct. Cl. 561, 19 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1949, 1967 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 37
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedFebruary 17, 1967
Docket271-65, 272-65
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 372 F.2d 964 (U. S. Thermo Control Co. v. The United States. Thermo King Corporation v. The 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
U. S. Thermo Control Co. v. The United States. Thermo King Corporation v. The United States, 372 F.2d 964, 178 Ct. Cl. 561, 19 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1949, 1967 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 37 (cc 1967).

Opinions

DURFEE, Judge.

These are suits for recovery of excise taxes paid by U.S. Thermo Control Company for the period July 1, 1959 through August 12, 1961, and by Thermo King Corporation for the period August 14, 1961 through June 30, 1962 in the aggregate amount of $2,538,175.09.

Plaintiff Thermo King Corporation is successor in interest to plaintiff U.S. Thermo Control Company, and is the same party as plaintiff in Thermo King Corporation v. United States, 354 F.2d 242, 173 Ct.Cl. 860 (1965), reconsideration denied March 18, 1966. The facts there alleged are the same except for differences in periods and amounts of tax involved. The case again comes before us on cross motions for summary judgment, supported by the same affidavits and exhibits supplied in the former case, and one additional affidavit for defendant. None of defendant’s arguments herein raises questions that have not been fully considered by the court, and dismissed by the court’s prior opinion and order on reconsideration in favor of plaintiff.

The question again presented is whether during this period the manufacture and sale of mechanical refrigeration units, designed to be mounted in truck and trailer bodies to be operated from the trucks’ own power and used to provide refrigeration for the commercial transportation of perishable products and frozen foods, were subject to the manufacturers’ excise tax on automobile and truck parts and accessories imposed by section 4061(b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954.

The Revenue Act of 1932 imposed an excise tax upon parts and accessories for automotive vehicles, including trucks. 47 Stat. 261-262. The same statute imposed an excise tax on household-type refrigerators and components, but not on commercial refrigeration. Ibid at 263-264. In the year of enactment of the 1932 statute, the Bureau of Internal Revenue ruled publicly that “refrigerator parts or units, designed primarily and solely used for commercial purposes” (including “refrigerating units for commercial transportation equipment”) “are exempt from tax.” S.T. 523, XI-2 Cum. Bull. 477 (1932). [Emphasis supplied.] By Revenue Act of 1941 the excise tax on refrigeration was increased from five to ten percent, and broadened to apply, in the words of the House Ways and Means Committee, “to all mechanical refrigerators and refrigerating units, whether of household or other type.” H.R.Rep.No.1040, 77th Cong., 1st Sess. 49 (1941). The automotive parts and accessories tax was broadened by the 1941 Act to include parts and accessories for truck-trailers and trailers as well as trucks, and was made a five percent tax. The Revenue Act of 1942, enacted thirteen months later, returned the refrigeration tax to a tax only on household-type units and components by repealing the tax on commercial refrigeration. No relevant change was made in the automotive parts and accessories tax provision.

Plaintiff began manufacturing units designed to refrigerate trucks and trailers in 1939. It paid no excise tax on them until the Revenue Act of 1941 became effective. It paid the ten percent refrigeration excise tax on its sales of truck refrigeration units during the life of the tax on commercial refrigeration— 1941 and 1942. In 1945 a Revenue Service agent auditing plaintiff’s returns for the period 1940-45 concluded that the units it manufactured were subject throughout the period to the automotive parts and accessories tax. Defendant [966]*966asserted liability for a tax so determined.1

This court held in the first Thermo King case, supra, that plaintiff’s units were subject to the commercial refrigeration tax and, following United States v. Leslie Salt Co., 350 U.S. 383, 76 S.Ct. 416, 100 L.Ed. 441 (1956), and J. P. See-burg Piano Co. v. United States, 62 Ct.Cl. 281 (1926), concluded that “the 1942 repeal of the 1941 tax on Commercial Refrigeration ended plaintiff’s tax liability under the facts in this case * * Thermo King, supra, 354 F.2d at p. 251, 173 Ct.Cl. at p. 875.

Defendant, in urging the court to depart from its former decision, has relied almost completely upon the same alleged facts, the same legal argument and the same private rulings of the Internal Revenue Service that it presented in support of its petition for reconsideration in the first case.

In addition, defendant has submitted an affidavit of Mr. Bernard H. Fisch-grund, Chief of the Excise Tax Branch, Miscellaneous Tax Division in the office of the Assistant Commissioner, Technical Internal Revenue Service, who states that private rulings have consistently held that truck and trailer refrigeration units were subject to the automotive parts and accessories tax. This affidavit adds nothing new to the force of the rulings already reviewed on reconsideration of the first decision.

In the first Thermo King case, the court concluded that “[a]t no time during the period 1932 up to 1945, did the Bureau of Internal Revenue ever assert that truck or trailer refrigeration units were subject to the tax on automotive parts and accessories under the regulations * * ibid, 354 F.2d at p. 246, 173 Ct.Cl. at p. 867. Although the conclusion was correct on the basis of all the alleged facts then before the court, it is no longer correct on the basis of the private rulings and affidavits now presented to us.

Defendant’s failure to produce these private rulings earlier is due to the fact that, although their existence was known, the Bureau of Internal Revenue did not want to disclose them at the first trial and consented only after the court’s adverse decision. This peculiar piecemeal presentation of known facts now requires that this court again plow the same furrow. However, we are by no means persuaded that these rulings evidence the consistency of Bureau interpretation ascribed by the affidavit of Branch Chief Fischgrund. While they all appear to deal with refrigeration equipment primarily designed for use with refrigerator bodies on trucks or trailers, none of them are of the same type as plaintiff’s units and some of the rulings are completely inconsistent. For example, among the documents are private rulings by the Internal Revenue Service on vacuum cold plates and accessories sold by the Dole Refrigerating Company for use with truck or trailer units. On March 21, 1947, the Internal Revenue Agent advised this company that under a private ruling dated March 13, 1947, manufacturers’ sales of such articles were not subject to the tax on auto parts or accessories under § 3403 (c) of the Internal Revenue Code. On April 1, 1955, eight years later, this same truck refrigeration equipment was found to be subject to this identical tax, even though there had not been any relevant change in the tax statute.

On August 3, 1938, a communication from the Commissioner of Internal Revenue to the Collector in Dallas, Texas, made reference to private rulings issued on April 20 and May 11, 1936 which held “that a certain refrigerating unit and an electrical power system manufactured and sold by the Kold-Hold Manufacturing Company, Lansing, Michigan and the Century Electric Company, St. Louis, Missouri, respectively are not subject to tax either under the provisions of section 606(c) or section [967]*967608 of the Revenue Act of 1932.” (The auto parts and accessories excise tax and the domestic mechanical refrigerator tax).

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372 F.2d 964, 178 Ct. Cl. 561, 19 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1949, 1967 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 37, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/u-s-thermo-control-co-v-the-united-states-thermo-king-corporation-v-cc-1967.