United States v. Beresford

• Court: District Court, W.D. Washington
• Decided: March 23, 2023
• Docket: 3:21-cv-05345
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

THE HONORABLE JOHN C. COUGHENOUR 1 2 3 4 5 6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 8 AT SEATTLE 9 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, CASE NO. C21-5345-JCC-SKV 10 Plaintiff, ORDER 11 v. 12 STEVEN M. BERESFORD, et. al., 13 Defendants. 14

15 This matter comes before the Court on Plaintiff’s objections (Dkt. No. 75) to the Report 16 and Recommendation (“R&R”) of the Honorable S. Kate Vaughan, United States Magistrate 17 Judge (Dkt. No. 74). Having thoroughly considered the R&R and the relevant record, the Court 18 hereby OVERRULES the objections, ADOPTS the R&R, and DENIES Defendant Beresford’s 19 motion for a judgment on the pleadings (Dkt. No. 62) for the reasons stated herein. 20 A district court must conduct a de novo review of those portions of a magistrate judge’s 21 R&R to which a party properly objects. 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1); Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(b)(3). A party 22 properly objects when he or she files “specific written objections” to the R&R. Fed. R. Civ. P. 23 72(b)(2). In contrast, general objections or summaries of arguments previously presented have 24 the same effect as no objection at all since they do not focus the Court’s attention on any specific 25 issues for review. Howard v. Sec’y of Health and Human Servs., 932 F.2d 505, 509 (6th Cir. 26 1991); see also Garvey v. Uttecht, 2020 WL 5946157, slip op. at 1 (W.D. Wash. 2020). 1 Defendant Beresford moved for judgment on the pleadings, arguing that Plaintiff’s claims 2 are meritless because the tax system is one of “voluntary compliance.” (Dkt. No. 62.) Judge 3 Vaughan recommended the Court deny the motion, emphasizing that the requirement to pay 4 taxes is mandatory.1 (Dkt. No. 74.) In objecting, Defendant fails to identify any errors in the 5 R&R. (See generally Dkt. No. 75.) Instead, he reiterates his prior argument, without pointing to 6 specific error. (Dkt. No. 75 at 2–3.) While Defendant may disagree with the tax law, and by 7 extension Judge Vaughan’s ruling, he does not identify any error in the R&R. The requirement to 8 pay taxes is not voluntary, as Defendant suggests. See, e.g., Wilcox v. Comm’r, 848 F.2d 1007, 9 1008 (9th Cir. 1988). 10 Accordingly, the Court ORDERS as follows: 11 1. The R&R (Dkt. No. 74) is ADOPTED. 12 2. Defendant’s motion (Dkt. No. 62) is DENIED. 13 3. The Clerk is directed to send copies of this Order to the parties and to the Honorable 14 S. Kate Vaughan. 15 DATED this 23rd day of March 2023. A 16 17 18 John C. Coughenour 19 UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

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25 1 Defendant previously filed a motion to dismiss, making a similar argument that taxes are “voluntarily,” which this Court denied. (See Dkt. No. 43 (Report and Recommendation), Dkt. 26 No. 46 (Order adopting R&R).)