United States ex rel. Internal Revenue Serv. v. Austin (In re Austin)

583 B.R. 480
CourtUnited States Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedApril 9, 2018
DocketNo. 17–6024
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 583 B.R. 480 (United States ex rel. Internal Revenue Serv. v. Austin (In re Austin)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Bankruptcy Appellate Panel 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
United States ex rel. Internal Revenue Serv. v. Austin (In re Austin), 583 B.R. 480 (bap8 2018).

Opinion

SANBERG, Bankruptcy Judge.

The Appellant, United States of America, appeals the July 24, 2017, order of the Bankruptcy Court sustaining the Debtors' objection to a proof of claim filed by the Internal Revenue Service. We have jurisdiction over this appeal from the final order of the Bankruptcy Court. See 28 U.S.C. § 158(b).

For the reasons stated below, we reverse.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

The question of whether substantial evidence was presented in support of the objection as a matter of law sufficient to rebut the Internal Revenue Service's ("IRS") proof of claim is reviewed de novo . Fed. R. Bankr. P. 8013 ; Halverson v. Estate of Cameron (In re Mathiason) , 16 F.3d 234, 235 (8th Cir. 1994) ; Dove-Nation v. eCast Settlement Corp. (In re Dove-Nation ), 318 B.R. 147, 150 (B.A.P. 8th Cir. 2004). We review the Bankruptcy Court's findings of fact for clear error and its conclusions of law de novo. Brown v. I.R.S. (In re Brown) , 82 F.3d 801, 805 (8th Cir. 1996), abrogated on other grounds by Raleigh v. Ill. Dep't of Revenue, 530 U.S. 15, 120 S.Ct. 1951, 147 L.Ed.2d 13 (2000) ; Keating v. C.I.R., 544 F.3d 900 (8th Cir. 2008), Blodgett v. C.I.R. , 394 F.3d 1030, 1035 (8th Cir. 2005) (finding in the context of proving tax loss, which is entitled to a presumption of correctness, that "we review de novo the legal question of whether a taxpayer produced sufficient evidence to shift the burden of proof").

BACKGROUND

The Debtors, Scott S. and Anna M. Austin ("Austins" or "Appellees"), filed a voluntary petition under Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code with the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri on December 8, 2014. In their schedules, the Austins listed two pending worker's compensation claims as contingent and unliquidated exempt property. These claims were valued at $0.00 or an "unknown value." The Austins listed the IRS as a secured creditor. The IRS filed proof of claim no. 5-1, asserting in part a secured claim as a result of a tax lien.

On January 9, 2015, the Austins filed an objection to claim no. 5-1 ("January Objection"). They objected to the amount of the IRS's priority claim and the amount of the *482claim listed as secured. They argued that no value should be attributable to their worker's compensation claims in determining the secured portion of the IRS's claim. They also argued, in the alternative, that since there were neither settlement offers nor a basis to determine the value of the worker's compensation claims, the present value of the worker's compensation claims should be $0.

On July 13, 2015, the Bankruptcy Court held a hearing on the January Objection. No evidence was presented at this hearing and the matter was taken under submission.

On September 18, 2015, the Bankruptcy Court overruled the Austins' January Objection and held that the Austins had failed to meet their burden to produce substantial evidence to rebut the IRS's claim. The Bankruptcy Court disagreed with the Austins' assertion that their worker's compensation claims had no value. In re Austin, 538 B.R. 543 (Bankr. E.D. Mo. 2015) (" Austin 1"). Rather, the Bankruptcy Court held that because the claims were being pursued at the time the petition was filed, they must have had some value. Id. at 546. Therefore, the Bankruptcy Court overruled the Austin's objection. Id. at 546-547.

In the meantime, on July 28, 2015 (while Austin 1 was under submission), the Austins negotiated a settlement of the worker's compensation claims for $21,448.80. After attorneys' fees, the Austins received a net settlement of $15,661.60.

The IRS learned of the settlement, and on October 13, 2015, filed an amended claim, No. 5-3, which included as part of its secured claim the amount of $15,661.60 for the value of the worker's compensation settlement.

The Austins again objected to the IRS's claim, specifically to the value of the IRS lien against the worker's compensation claims. In support of their objection, on July 26, 2016, the Austins filed an affidavit of Michael Smallwood1 ("Smallwood Affidavit"), the Austins' worker's compensation attorney, who opined that the worker's compensation claims had a "nuisance" value of $3,000.00 on the petition date.

In response, the IRS argued that the Smallwood Affidavit was not substantial evidence sufficient to overcome the prima facie validity of the IRS's claim. Further, the IRS argued that the value of the worker's compensation claims should be the amount that the claim settled for, though it was several months after the Austins' petition date.

After hearing oral arguments, on August 22, 2016, without taking evidence or hearing testimony, the Bankruptcy Court took the matter under submission.

On July 24, 2017, the Bankruptcy Court ruled that the Smallwood Affidavit was "substantial evidence" of the value of the worker's compensation claims, sufficient to rebut the prima facie validity of the IRS's claim. The Bankruptcy Court reasoned that the affidavit was from the attorney who litigated the matter himself.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
583 B.R. 480, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-ex-rel-internal-revenue-serv-v-austin-in-re-austin-bap8-2018.