Balaban & Katz Corp. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue
| Decision Date | 21 February 1929 |
| Docket Number | 4039.,No. 4038,4038 |
| Citation | 30 F.2d 807 |
| Parties | BALABAN & KATZ CORPORATION v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE. TIVOLI THEATRE CO. v. SAME. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
David Levinson, of Chicago, Ill., for petitioners.
H. R. Gamble, of Washington, D. C., for respondent.
Before ALSCHULER, PAGE, and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.
Petitioner's complaint is that the Board of Tax Appeals should have allowed it 4 per cent., instead of 3 per cent., for depreciation and obsolescence on its motion picture theater, the "Chicago," located in the city of Chicago.
The "obsolescence" under consideration in rate making and for other purposes usually has to do with machinery, or other units used in the construction and operation of properties, because there is a gradual wearing out of such units, so that they finally cannot be used economically or at all. The "obsolescence" claimed by petitioner is not in machinery or other units used in theater construction and operation, but the claim is that, because of improvements in moving picture theater construction, which have been or will be incorporated in new theaters, and which cannot be put into the "Chicago," that theater, as a unit, is progressing in obsolescence to a point where, after 15 or 20 years, it cannot be profitably operated.
The "obsolescence" that petitioner has undertaken to establish by both fact and opinion evidence arises, if at all, from the fact that there have been improvements in ventilating methods, in the positioning of the booths from which the pictures are thrown upon the screen, and various other things that cannot be used in the "Chicago" theater. Many of those things, testified to by Mr. Balaban, an officer of petitioner, as producing obsolescence, have not been put into use anywhere, and in fact have not been so perfected that it is known what the consequences of their perfection and use, if they are ever brought into use, will be upon any theater. The only reason given by Mr. Balaban why the "Chicago" theater was not playing to capacity houses was that the added seating capacity in Chicago during the then past year had affected the "Chicago." There is no testimony in the record that the box-office receipts of the theater in question have been affected by the absence of the improvements from that theater, or otherwise.
One witness, an architect, asked to estimate the useful economic life of the theater, said: ...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Equitable Life Assur. Soc. of United States v. Gratiot, 1742
... ... 14 S.W. 174, 22 C. J. 735; Balaban etc. Co. v. Com., ... 30 F.2d 807; Elliott v ... case of drowning or of internal injuries revealed by an ... autopsy, there is a ... The case of Sturm v. Assur ... Corp., 212 Ill.App. 354, seems to be to the same ... ...
-
Washington v. United States
...29 S.Ct. 420, 53 L.Ed. 788 (1909); Breland v. United States, 372 F.2d 629, 633 (5th Cir. 1967); Balaban & Katz Corp. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 30 F.2d 807, 808 (7th Cir. 1929). Indeed McCormick says that the "core" of the opinion evidence rule would be preserved by a rule "prescr......
-
Chiu v. Comm'r of Internal Revenue, Docket No. 14166-83.
...character. And, opinion evidence which does not appear to be based upon disclosed facts is of little or no value. Balaban & Katz Corp. v. Commissioner, 7 Cir., 30 F.2d 807, 808. Petitioner's witnesses failed to support their conclusions as to value with facts of convincing probative value. ......
-
Brown v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue
...Board is enabled to evaluate and so to draw its own conclusions as to the probative value of the opinion. Cf. Balaban & Katz Corporation v. Commissioner, 7 Cir., 30 F.2d 807. There remains the circumstance that stock was traded in on the Chicago Exchange at a nominal price for a few days du......