United States v. Julian G. Rogers, (Two Cases). United States of America v. Julian G. Rogers and Margaret H. Rogers

286 F.2d 277, 7 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 558, 1961 U.S. App. LEXIS 5462
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 27, 1961
Docket14086_1
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 286 F.2d 277 (United States v. Julian G. Rogers, (Two Cases). United States of America v. Julian G. Rogers and Margaret H. Rogers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Julian G. Rogers, (Two Cases). United States of America v. Julian G. Rogers and Margaret H. Rogers, 286 F.2d 277, 7 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 558, 1961 U.S. App. LEXIS 5462 (6th Cir. 1961).

Opinions

CECIL, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from judgments of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. Julian G. Rogers filed three separate actions in the District Court for the refund of income taxes for the years 1947, 1948 and 1949. In 1949 he filed a joint return with his wife Margaret H. Rogers and she is a co-plaintiff with him for the recovery of taxes for that year. The three cases were consolidated for trial and were tried to a jury resulting in verdicts for the taxpayers in all three cases. Judgments in the sum of $418,566.46 were entered upon the verdicts and the government appealed.

Julian Rogers sometimes hereafter referred to as the taxpayer was in the livestock business for the tax years in question and had been in such business for many years prior thereto. He bought cattle, hogs and lambs from farmers and at the auction markets in Kentucky. He immediately sold the livestock so purchased, mostly to independent or marginal meat packers in Eastern cities. He made some sales to commission merchants in terminal markets. He did business on a very lai’ge scale and was one of the largest single purchasers of livestock in the auction markets. His gross sales for the years 1947, 1948 and 1949 were in excess of $29,000,000, $32,000,000 and $23,000,000, respectively. During the tax years involved here, he purchased as much as 50 per cent of the fat cattle sold at auction. He bought the livestock in his own name and was required to pay for it in 72 hours or at most in seven days. Shipment was made by rail and truck and it took from two and a half to five days for a load to reach its destination. His best customers paid within a week to ten days but many delayed payment as long as six months. Some never paid. Late in 1946 or early 1947 Rogers had about $1,000,000 outstanding in accounts receivable from his marginal-packer customers. At this time he believed that there was danger of a depression or a severe decline in business.

Rogers was confronted with four risks of loss in his livestock business which may be stated briefly as follows: Price declines in transit, shrinkage and damage in transit, terminal market losses and accounts receivable losses. The first three were natural and ordinary hazards [279]*279of the business. The danger of loss of accounts receivable increased with any decline in general business conditions. He estimated his losses through price declines for the years 1947, 1948 and 1949 at approximately $163,000. The total losses in accounts receivable for the same years were $964,000. More than two-thirds of this was lost through •one company, The American Packing Company, of Hoboken, New Jersey.

Mr. Rogers had suffered severe business reverses on at least two prior occasions and he was desirous of protecting himself against another such reverse. He discussed his situation with Mr. Weiss, of the Baxter International Economics Research Bureau. He described the nature of his business and the risks with which he was confronted and told him that he was in a seventy to ninety per cent tax bracket. Mr. Weiss advised Rogers to enter the commodities futures market on a large scale as “the only means of insurance” against losses in his livestock business.

Acting upon this advice Mr. Rogers sold a large amount of his $300,000 of investments in stocks and securities and •entered the commodities futures market in a substantial way. He had dealt in .a modest way in commodity futures during the years 1945 and 1946. Gains from these transactions were treated for income tax purposes as capital gains. In the beginning of 1947 Mr. Rogers instructed his accountant to treat gains .and losses from commodity futures transactions as gains and losses in ordinary income.

Mr. Rogers dealt with two brokerage firms in Lexington, Kentucky, and traded in futures in wheat, oats, corn, lard, soybeans, cotton and eggs. He bought and sold on the advice of Mr. Weiss. They held frequent telephone conversations. Sometimes these were daily. He bought .and sold in varying quantities, from day fo day, taking short and long positions.' Futures were closed out daily, weekly and •monthly. For the three years in question there were over eighteen hundred •opening contracts in futures commodities. The total value of such transactions in 1947 exceeded eight million dollars. There was a similar pattern of trading in the other two years. The taxpayer’s profits or losses on these transactions resulted from fluctuations in the prices of futures. The transactions for the years here under consideration resulted in losses and for tax purposes the taxpayer treated them as losses of ordinary income.

The Commissioner of Internal Revenue determined that the losses were from capital investments and on April 26,1956 issued notices to the taxpayers of the deficiencies which are the subject of these actions.

The parties entered into stipulations as follows:

“1; There is no dispute as to the amount of tax and interest in controversy in any of the foregoing three cases (and that refers to the 1947 case, the 1948 ease and the 1949 case) and further that the amount of the refund, if any, due the plaintiff or plaintiffs can be determined by the parties after the jury has returned its verdict.
“2. That the plaintiff Julian G. Rogers’ transactions in the commodities futures market during the pertinent period did not constitute ‘true’ or technical hedges as the term ‘hedge’ is defined in General Counsel’s Memorandum 17322, CB XV-2, page 151 et seq.”

The appellant contends that the trial judge erred as a matter of law in submitting the case to the jury.

The law of the cases as adopted by the trial judge is stated in an interrogatory which he submitted to the jury in each of the cases. The interrogatories were identical and we will refer to only one of them. It consisted of three parts. The first referred to the nature of the taxpayer’s business and the hazards of loss to which he was subjected. The second provided that he must have entered the commodities futures market in good faith for the sole [280]*280purpose of protecting himself from the hazards of loss in the business. The third contains the essence of the law and reads as follows: “ . . . and further find from the evidence that the dealings by the Plaintiff in Commodity Futures afforded a reasonable means for protection from such losses, in whole or in part, and in that respect and for that reason had such direct relation to the hazards of his business of purchasing and selling livestock as constituted his dealings in Commodity Futures an integral part of his livestock business?”

This statement of the law contains two essential elements, one, there must be a direct relation to the hazards of the business of buying and selling livestock and, two, the dealings in commodity futures must constitute an integral part of the livestock business.

One of the cases relied on by the trial judge and cited by counsel on both sides is known as the Corn Products case, Corn Products Refining Co. v. Commissioner, 350 U.S. 46, 76 S.Ct. 20, 100 L.Ed. 29. This is the leading case on the subject. Corn Products Company, the taxpayer, is a manufacturer of products made from grain corn.

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Bluebook (online)
286 F.2d 277, 7 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 558, 1961 U.S. App. LEXIS 5462, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-julian-g-rogers-two-cases-united-states-of-america-v-ca6-1961.