Green v. Bookwalter
| Decision Date | 02 July 1963 |
| Docket Number | No. 17178.,17178. |
| Citation | 319 F.2d 631 |
| Parties | George Fuller GREEN and Nina King Green, Appellants, v. E. O. BOOKWALTER, District Director of Internal Revenue, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Lancie L. Watts, Kansas City, Mo., for appellants; Marvin C. Hopper, and Charles C. Shafer, Jr., Kansas City, Mo., with him on the brief.
Edward L. Rogers, Atty., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., for appellee; Louis F. Oberdorfer, Asst. Atty. Gen., Lee A. Jackson, Melva M. Graney, Attys., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., and F. Russell Millin, U. S. Atty., and John Harry Wiggins, Asst. U. S. Atty., Kansas City, Mo., with him on the brief.
Before SANBORN and BLACKMUN, Circuit Judges, and STEPHENSON, District Judge.
This is an appeal from a judgment for the defendant (appellee) in an action for a refund of federal income tax for the year 1956. The action was based upon the claim that the Commissioner of Internal Revenue illegally assessed a deficiency against the plaintiffs (appellants), due to his disallowance of valid deductions taken by them in their income tax return for that year, and that he had denied their claim for refund of the deficiency assessed, which they had paid.
The plaintiffs in their 1956 income tax return had claimed two deductions for travel expenses: one for "Non-reimbursable travel expenses of George Fuller Green as a member of Commission of International Relations and Trade, Kansas City, Missouri * * * $1,645.77" and "Entertainment expenses of above, $20.00," on a trip to Latin America; and the other for Mr. Green's travel expenses as a member of the Park Board of Kansas City, Missouri, amounting to $369.25, on a trip to the West Coast.
The case was tried to the late Judge R. Jasper Smith. His death occurred before he had decided it. It was resubmitted to Judge John W. Oliver for decision upon the trial record made before Judge Smith. Judge Oliver decided that there had been no illegal disallowance of deductions by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue and no overpayment of taxes by the plaintiffs. He dismissed their complaint.
The plaintiffs on appeal challenge only two rulings of the trial court. One is the ruling that on the trip to Latin America, as a Commissioner of the Kansas City Commission for International Relations and Trade, with the 29 other Commissioners, including the Mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, — appointed by the Mayor pursuant to a Resolution of the City Council — Green was not performing "the functions of a public office" within the meaning of § 7701(a) (26)1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, 26 U.S.C. 1958 ed., and was therefore not entitled to deduct his traveling expenses under § 162(a) (2) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, 26 U.S.C.1958 ed., which provides that "There shall be allowed as a deduction all the ordinary and necessary expenses paid or incurred during the taxable year in carrying on any trade or business, including * * * (2) traveling expenses * * * while away from home in the pursuit of a trade or business." The other ruling challenged is that the expenses in question were non-deductible under § 170(a) (1) and 170(c) (1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, 26 U.S.C.1958 ed., as a charitable contribution or gift for the use of a political subdivision of a State "made for exclusively public purposes."
Judge Oliver, in a comprehensive opinion, 207 F.Supp. 866, has stated in detail the facts leading to the creation of the Kansas City Commission for International Relations and Trade, the purposes for which it was organized,...
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