CIR v. Murdoch

• Decision Date: 07 June 1963
• Docket Number: No. 14222,14223.,14222
• Citation: 318 F.2d 414
• Parties: COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Petitioner, v. John P. and Eleanor MURDOCH. Henrietta O. MURDOCH, Petitioner, v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

318 F.2d 414 (1963)

COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Petitioner, v. John P. and Eleanor MURDOCH.

Henrietta O. MURDOCH, Petitioner, v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE.

Nos. 14222, 14223.

United States Court of Appeals Third Circuit.

Argued May 9, 1963.

Decided June 7, 1963.

Rehearings Denied July 8, 1963.

David O. Walter, Dept. of Justice, Tax Division, Washington, D. C. (Louis F. Oberdorfer, Asst. Atty. Gen., Lee A. Jackson, Alan D. Pekelner, Attorneys, Department of Justice, Washington, D. C., on the brief), for Com'r of Int. Rev.

David P. Brown, Jr., Philadelphia, Pa. (Andrew B. Young, E. Eugene Mason, Philadelphia, Pa., on the brief), for John P. and Eleanor Murdoch.

Henry D. O'Connor, Philadelphia, Pa., for Henrietta O. Murdoch.

Before McLAUGHLIN and FORMAN, Circuit Judges, and COOLAHAN, District Judge.

FORMAN, Circuit Judge.

PETITION FOR REVIEW BY HENRIETTA O. MURDOCH, No. 14,223

John P. Murdoch and his brother Eugene K. Murdoch, each owned 49% of the stock of John P. Murdoch Company, a business they inherited from their father. For some years prior to his death, in September of 1945, Eugene K. Murdoch was ill and John P. Murdoch managed the business. Eugene K. Murdoch continued to draw a salary until his death, at which time his widow, Henrietta O. Murdoch, inherited his interest. Shortly thereafter John P. Murdoch and Mrs. Murdoch agreed that the physical assets, viz., the real estate and production equipment of the John P. Murdoch Company, at 3630 Haverford Avenue in Philadelphia, would be transferred to a new corporation in exchange for its stock, of which 49% would be issued to Mrs. Murdoch in place of her shares in the John P. Murdoch Company and 49% would be held by Mr. Murdoch. The new corporation was named the 3630 Haverford Avenue Corporation. On December 31, 1946 it leased the premises and equipment to the John P. Murdoch Company for $1,200 per year plus taxes and mortgage interest. This rental arrangement continued until April 1, 1955, when the rent was increased to $5,000 per year without the obligation of the lessor to pay taxes or interest. Meanwhile Mr. Murdoch had been paying Mrs. Murdoch twenty dollars per week which he reduced at this time to ten dollars.

In June 1955 Mrs. Murdoch instituted an equity action against her brother-in-law in which she charged him with having fraudulently induced her to exchange her 49% interest in the stock of the John P. Murdoch Company for 49% of the shares of the stock of 3630 Haverford Avenue Corporation; that the fair rental value of the property and machinery was $6,500 per year, and demanded:

"(a) * * * an accounting of all the profits made by him by virtue of his ownership of 50% of the stock of the John P. Murdoch Company since the 1st day of January, 1945.

"(b) 49% of the fair rental value of the real estate and machinery leased by the 3630 Haverford Avenue Corporation to the John P. Murdoch Company from December 31, 1946 until December 31, 1954.

"(c) A complete accounting of all transactions of the John P. Murdoch Company and the 3630 Haverford Avenue Corporation from the 1st of January, 1945 to date.

"(d) Such other and further relief as this court may deem appropriate in the premises."

The litigation was settled before trial on December 11, 1957, as a result of which Mrs. Murdoch executed two documents. One was designated a "Release" and provided as consideration for the payment to her of $16,500 that she released John P. Murdoch from all claims including those encompassed in the equity action and as well released the John P. Murdoch Company and the 3630 Haverford Avenue Corporation from all claims. The other document was designated a "Bill of Sale" and provided that in consideration of the payment to her of $20,000 she assigned to Mr. Murdoch her stock in the 3630 Haverford Avenue Corporation. Two checks were made by Mr. Murdoch payable to her lawyers. One was for $16,500 and contained on its face the statement "Payment in release of all claims in suit of Murdoch v. Murdoch, C.P.I." The other was in the sum of $20,000 and was marked "Payment in full for 49% shares 3630 Haverford Ave. Corp. stock."

In her income tax return for the year 1957 Mrs. Murdoch reported the full amount of $36,500 received from Mr. Murdoch as proceeds of the sale of "John P. Murdoch Co." and the resulting gain as being long term capital gain. The Commissioner determined that $16,500 of the $36,500 payment was taxable as ordinary income.

The Tax Court sustained the position of the Commissioner.¹

Mrs. Murdoch seeks a review of the determination of the Tax Court. She asserts that the entire payment of $36,500 to her was a "sale or exchange" of a capital asset within the meaning of §§ 1221 and 1222 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 and that no part of it was ordinary income to her.

The pith of her argument is that Mr. Murdoch fraudulently induced her to part with her stock in the Murdoch Company for an amount less than subsequent disclosure revealed the book value to be; that Mr. Murdoch, individually, owed her no duty to pay income on her interest in the Murdoch Company; that the only source to which she could look for income was the Murdoch Company by way of dividends and that she did not make the company a party to her suit. Under these circumstances she reasons that her suit was for the restoration of her stock in the Murdoch Company and that the aggregate sum of $36,500 which she recovered in the settlement represents value for that stock, no part of which is susceptible of being characterized...