Beaty v. United States, 6760.
| Decision Date | 24 March 1955 |
| Docket Number | No. 6760.,6760. |
| Citation | 220 F.2d 681,47 AFTR 362 |
| Parties | Keith M. BEATY, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
Paul R. Ervin, Charlotte, N. C., and Llewellyn A. Luce, Washington, D. C. (Frank W. Snepp, Jr., and W. M. Nicholson, Charlotte, N. C., on brief), for appellant.
James M. Baley, Jr., U. S. Atty., Asheville, N. C., for appellee.
Before PARKER, Chief Judge, and SOPER and DOBIE, Circuit Judges.
Writ of Certiorari Denied May 31, 1955. See 75 S.Ct. 874.
On January 10, 1955 the Supreme Court of the United States considered petitions for writs of certiorari in this and eight other cases in which the Courts of Appeals had affirmed convictions of attempting to evade and defeat the income tax laws in violation of § 145 of the Internal Revenue Code, 26 U.S.C.A. § 145; and the Court vacated the judgments and remanded the cases to the Courts of Appeals for reconsideration in the light of its decisions in four other cases handed down on December 6, 1954, in each of which the prosecution had been based on the net worth method of proof.1 The Supreme Court did not consider the merits of the cases remanded nor their relation to its recent opinions, but remanded them in the belief that reexamination by the Courts of Appeals was desirable even in those cases remotely involving the principles it had laid down. See 348 U.S. 905, 75 S.Ct. 311. The prior decision of this court in the pending case is found in 4 Cir., 213 F.2d 712.
Accordingly the pending case was set for argument on March 7, with directions to the parties to file briefs restricted to the questions raised in the decisions of the Supreme Court; and in accordance with this order briefs have been filed and counsel have been heard. The principal contention now made on behalf of the defendant is that the Government made use of the net worth method of proof in the District Court but failed to establish "an opening net worth" or the total net value of the taxpayer's assets at the beginning of a given year, as required by the pronouncements of the Supreme Court. One ground for this contention was the introduction in evidence by witnesses for the United States of two statements dated December 31, 1944 and June 30, 1946 respectively, which defendant had given to a brewery company as evidence of his financial status in connection with a purchase of merchandise. These statements showed an increase of net worth during the period of eighteen months in the amount of $145,800.10, and they were used as evidence tending to show that the net taxable income of the defendant was greater than that disclosed by his income tax reports for the years under examination.
The defendant contends that these statements were without probative force because it was also shown in the evidence that on May 26, 1943 and again on November 14, 1944 Beaty had deposited with a bank as collateral for loans stock of the value of $252,492, an amount in excess of those shown on the statements; and also because of the testimony of a government agent that he believed that Beaty had stocks in excess of those shown on the list of collateral deposited with the bank. Moreover, it is pointed out that the Government made no investigation as to the value of the stocks at the beginning and the end of the eighteen month period, and hence it is contended that the increase of net worth shown by the statements to the brewery company may have been occasioned by a rise in market prices.
The defendant also refers to the testimony of an internal revenue agent that defendant's expenditures exceeded his income by $32,885.60 in 1945 and $56,695.67 in 1946; and that the agent in making his computation did not take into consideration that the defendant may have had money on hand on January 1, 1945, the beginning of the first year covered by the charges in the indictment, although there was evidence that prior to the indictment years the defendant put up as collateral for a loan with the bank $100,000 at different times, and that $70,000 of this sum was released on March 20, 1945. The contention of the defendant in this respect...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
US v. Strawberry
...States, 213 F.2d 712 (4th Cir.1954), vacated on other grounds, 348 U.S. 905, 75 S.Ct. 312, 99 L.Ed. 710 (1955), aff'd on remand, 220 F.2d 681 (1955); United States v. Goodyear, 649 F.2d 226 (4th Cir.1981); United States v. Stofsky, 409 F.Supp. 609 (S.D.N.Y.1973). In Spies, the Supreme Court......
-
Reynolds v. United States, 15284.
...the Western District of North Carolina, the case is made out and the trial court had jurisdiction." See 348 U.S. 905, 75 S.Ct. 311, Id., 4 Cir., 220 F.2d 681. In the case at bar no returns were filed nor taxes paid. Each count of the indictment specifically charged that the crime was commit......
-
Brown v. United States, 11980.
...are Strauch v. United States, 6 Cir., 223 F.2d 377, decided June 13, 1955; Watts v. United States, 10 Cir., 220 F.2d 483; Beaty v. United States, 4 Cir., 220 F.2d 681, and United States v. Burdick 3 Cir., 221 F.2d 932. None has produced a result differing from the original The government, i......