Commissioner of Internal Rev. v. Western Union Tel. Co.

• Decision Date: 23 March 1944
• Docket Number: No. 57,141.,57
• Citation: 141 F.2d 774
• Parties: COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE v. WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH CO. SAME v. HARTFORD FIRE INS. CO.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

141 F.2d 774 (1944)

COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE v. WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH CO.

SAME v. HARTFORD FIRE INS. CO.

Nos. 57, 141.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

March 23, 1944.

Samuel O. Clark, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., and Sewall Key, Samuel H. Levy, and Paul R. Russell, Sp. Assts. to the Atty. Gen., for Commissioner of Internal Revenue.

Francis R. Stark and Clarence W. Roberts, both of New York City, and Paul E. Lesh, of Washington, D. C., for respondent Western Union Telegraph Co.

Ernest W. McCormick and Barclay Robinson, both of Hartford, Conn., for respondent Hartford Fire Ins. Co.

Before SWAN, AUGUSTUS N. HAND, and FRANK, Circuit Judges.

AUGUSTUS N. HAND, Circuit Judge.

The Commissioner has assessed against the respondents herein as transferees of certain corporations of which they were stockholders liability in respect to unpaid income taxes of the respective transferor corporations. Liability is predicated upon Section 311 of the Revenue Acts of 1928 and 1932, 26 U.S.C.A. Int.Rev.Code, § 311.

Several years before income taxes had been authorized by the Sixteenth Amendment the taxpayers primarily liable leased all of their properties for terms ranging from 99 to 999 years. Western Union was lessee of six of the original taxpayers, and American District Telegraph Company was lessee of the other original taxpayer. The respective instruments provided that for the properties leased the lessee was to guarantee and pay an amount equivalent to a specified percentage on the capital stock of the lessors and that these rentals should be distributed directly by the lessees among the stockholders of the lessors in proportion to stock holdings. Western Union was the lessee of the entire properties of six of the original taxpayers, and it was also a stockholder of those companies. Western Union, during each of the taxable years, paid the stockholders of its lessors, other than itself, the amounts which they were entitled to receive under the leases, but made no payment on account of the proportion of the rental which would come to it as a stockholder of the lessor. It claimed on its own income tax returns for the taxable years, as deductions for rent, the full amount which it had agreed to pay under the leases, and returned as dividends received from domestic corporations those portions of the total rental obligations which were allocable to the stock in the lessors owned by it. In the case of the Hartford Fire Insurance Company the properties of the taxpayer primarily liable were leased to the American District Telegraph Company; and Hartford received as stockholder of the original taxpayer its proportionate part of the amount agreed to be paid by the lessee as rental and returned as dividends received by it such proportionate amount.

The income taxes were assessed and warrants of distraint were issued against the lessors in each case, but these warrants were returned unsatisfied, and the taxes have not been collected. The Commissioner now seeks to collect from the respondents-stockholders herein, as transferees of the lessors, under Section 311 of the Acts of 1928 and 1932. That section, so far as relevant, reads as follows:

"Transferred assets

"(a) Method of collection. The amounts of the following liabilities shall, except as hereinafter in this section provided, be assessed, collected, and paid in the same manner and subject to the same provisions and limitations as in the case of a deficiency in a tax imposed by this title (including the provisions in case of delinquency in payment after notice and demand, the provisions authorizing distraint and proceedings in court for collection, and the provisions prohibiting claims and suits for refunds):

"(1) Transferees. The liability, at law or in equity, of a transferee of property of a taxpayer, in respect of the tax (including interest, additional amounts, and additions to the tax provided by law) imposed upon the taxpayer by this title.

* * * * *

"Any such liability may be either as to the amount of tax shown on the return or as to any deficiency in tax.

* * * * *

"(f) Definition of `transferee'. As used in this section, the term `transferee' includes heir, legatee, devisee, and distributee."

It has been settled by recent decisions that a corporation is taxable upon income constructively received by it when rentals due to it as lessor are paid directly to its stockholders. United States v. Joliet & Chicago R. Co., 315 U.S. 44, 62 S.Ct. 442, 86 L.Ed. 658. It is also settled that this rule is applicable in respect of rentals accruing upon stock of the lessor owned by the lessee. Gold & Stock Tel. Co. v. Commissioner, 2 Cir., 83 F.2d 465, certiorari denied 299 U.S. 564, 57 S.Ct. 26, 81 L.Ed. 415; Pacific & Atlantic Tel. Co. v. Commissioner, 2 Cir., 83 F.2d 469, certiorari denied 299 U.S. 564, 57 S.Ct. 26, 81 L.Ed. 415. We have heretofore held that taxes found to be due by the lessor under such circumstances, when it has no property with which to pay its income tax obligations, may be collected by means of an application by the government for an order enjoining the payment of the rental dividends to the lessor's stockholders until the collector shall have been able to satisfy the lessor's delinquent taxes therefrom. United States v. Warren R. Co., 2 Cir., 127 F.2d 134; United States v. Morris & Essex R. R. Co., 2 Cir., 135 F.2d 711. In the present proceedings the government seeks to employ an additional remedy for the collection of the lessor's income tax by following distributions of income paid by the lessee to the lessor's stockholders as transferees.

In Harwood v. Eaton, 2 Cir., 68 F.2d 12, and Western Union Tel. Co. v. Commissioner, 2 Cir., 68 F.2d 16, we held that persons in the situation of the respondents in the cases at bar were not liable as transferees. Two of the judges in Harwood v. Eaton, supra (of whom the writer was one) so held where lessee and stockholder were different persons on the ground that the payment was not a dividend. Judge Swan said (at page 14 of 68 F.2d): "The arrangement to have rent paid direct to the stockholders was not a fraudulent conveyance; it did not defraud existing creditors, nor was it intended to defraud future creditors of the lessor, for none was in view; nor was it devised as a scheme to defeat the collection of future income taxes." Judge Learned Hand agreed that the stockholders were not transferees, but rested his conclusion on the ground that the lessor corporation was not a "juristic person" separate from its stockholders, and that the tax laid upon the lessor was really laid upon the group composing it, so that there were not two persons to effect a transfer. In United States v. Morris & Essex R. R., 2 Cir., 135 F.2d 711, he reiterated the view that the corporation and stockholders were not distinct under a similar type of lease, though there the claim of liability as transferee was not involved. In Western Union Tel. Co. v. Commissioner, 2 Cir., 68 F.2d 16, we held that no liability as transferee existed, where the same person was lessee and stockholder of the lessor, because under the terms of the lease the stockholder had a direct right of action against the lessee for a proportionate share of the rent payments and in such circumstances under the New York law the lessor could not require any part of the rent to be paid to itself or by arrangement destroy the rights of its shareholders without their consent. Gifford v. Corrigan, 117 N.Y. 257, 22 N.E. 756, 6 L.R.A. 610, 15 Am.St.Rep. 508; Restatement Contracts § 142. We also held in Western Union Tel. Co. v. Commissioner, 2 Cir., 68 F.2d 12, that the lessee, Western Union, was not liable as transferee because, when it acquired shares in the lessor, its obligation to pay rent became extinguished pro tanto. In both Harwood v. Eaton, 2 Cir., 68 F.2d 12, and Western Union Tel. Co. v. Commissioner, 2 Cir., 68 F.2d 16, it was held that the only obligation of the lessee was a contract obligation running to the stockholders of the lessor as donee-beneficiaries and under the New York law, which was thought to control the relations of the parties, the government, as creditor of the lessor, had no claim against a stockholder, as transferee of lessor, because the lessor never received or transferred any part of the rent since the rent belonged to the stockholders of the lessor solely in their own right.

In our opinion much of the reasoning in Harwood v. Eaton, Western Union Tel. Co. v. Commissioner, and United States v. Morris & Essex R. R. Co., supra, cannot be supported in view of the theory upon which the Supreme Court proceeded in United States v. Joliet & Chicago R. Co., 315 U.S. 44, 62 S.Ct. 442, 86 L.Ed. 658. In the court below a majority of the Court of Appeals of the Seventh Circuit had held¹ that the lessor was not liable for income taxes upon rentals under a lease whereby the lessee had agreed to pay the rent directly to the stockholders of the lessor. The decision was placed on the ground that because of the direct contractual rights which ran to the stockholders the lessor had lost control over the rentals and consequently was not subject to a tax thereon. Judge Kerner filed a dissenting opinion in which he said: "either the payments to the stockholders should be treated as dividend distributions, or * * * in thus obtaining the discharge of an obligation definitely owing to its stockholders it received something of value which can properly be treated as income to it. In either event the income received by the stockholders should be treated as income for purposes of the tax." The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the Circuit Court of Appeals and subjected the lessor to income taxes upon the rentals distributed to its stockholders. It said 315 U.S. 44, 62 S.Ct. 445, 86 L.Ed. 658:

"The relationship between respondent and its shareholders is an abiding one. They obtain the dividend payments because of their status as shareholders. ...