Griffiths v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 4440.

• Decision Date: 12 June 1931
• Docket Number: No. 4440.,4440.
• Citation: 50 F.2d 782
• Parties: GRIFFITHS v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

50 F.2d 782 (1931)

GRIFFITHS v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE.

No. 4440.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

June 12, 1931.

Paysoff Tinkoff, of Chicago, Ill., for petitioner.

G. A. Youngquist, Asst. Atty. Gen., and A. G. Divet and Sewall Key, Sp. Assts. to Atty. Gen. (C. M. Charest, Gen. Counsel, Bureau of Internal Revenue and Robert L. Williams, Sp. Atty., Bureau of Internal Revenue, both of Washington, D. C., of counsel), for respondent.

Before EVANS and SPARKS, Circuit Judges, and WILKERSON, District Judge.

This appeal involves income and profits taxes for the year 1919 in the amount of $37,455.55, and the additional amount of $18,727.78 as a penalty for filing a fraudulent return in violation of section 250 (b) of the Revenue Act of 1918, c. 18, 40 Stat. 1057. It is taken from an order of redetermination of the Board of Tax Appeals entered March 29, 1929, followed by a motion by petitioner for a reopening, a reconsideration, and a new hearing of the cause, filed with the Board on July 8, 1929, which was denied September 20, 1929. The cause is brought to this court by a petition for review filed September 30, 1929, in pretended compliance with sections 1001-1003 of the Revenue Act of 1926, c. 27, 44 Stat. 9, 109, 110 (26 USCA §§ 1224-1226).

For about eight years prior to 1919, petitioner and his son, George Griffiths, were the owners of all but a qualifying share of the stock of John Griffiths & Son Company, hereinafter called the company, which was extensively engaged in the contracting business. A qualifying share was held by John C. Reuttinger, the general manager of the company's construction work, who received, in addition to a salary, a percentage of the company's profits. Petitioner was president and treasurer, George was vice president and assistant treasurer, and one Joyer, the company's accountant, was secretary. In the regular course of the business it was frequently necessary for the company to furnish surety bonds for the faithful performance of its contracts. In 1916, George suggested that in some instances those for whom buildings were to be constructed would accept the bonds of the company, signed by the owners of the company as sureties, in lieu of surety company bonds; and that the cost of such bonds could be saved to them by the company paying the company owners what the surety bonds would cost. In accordance with this suggestion an understanding was arrived at, the exact date of which is controverted, to the effect that this should be done.

No compensation was paid by the company on account of signing such bonds, and no credits were allowed such sureties on the company's books until July 31, 1919, when a gross amount of $124,683.25 was credited to them. Petitioner's share of this amount was $87,926.63. These credits were made up of items of compensation for bonds signed during the years 1916, 1917, 1918, and 1919. The amount was arrived at by the secretary ascertaining, at the time of entering the credits, what the bonds would have cost if furnished by surety companies.

Both the company and petitioner were at all times possessed of very large assets, including large cash balances, and petitioner's control of the company was such that he could have withdrawn from it at any time any amount actually owing to him; but no accounting was had or determination made of any amount due the sureties until the time of making the credit entries on July 31, 1919.

None of the interested parties included compensation for acting as surety on such bonds in their income returns for any of the years mentioned; nor did the company include in its returns any deductions for such items of expense until 1921, when it made such a claim, and it was adjusted with the Commissioner.

Petitioner filed his income tax returns on the cash receipt and disbursement plan. The particular return involved here was prepared for him by the company's secretary, with some assistance and supervision by an attorney. Petitioner did not personally supervise it or check it up. This was likewise true of all tax returns filed by petitioner.

One of the matters concerning which the parties differ is whether the compensation for signing the bonds was in part constructively received during each of the years 1916, 1917, 1918, and 1919, as contended by petitioner, or was all received in 1919, as was determined by the Commissioner and redetermined by the Board in the amount of $37,455.55 tax and $18,727.78 fraud penalty. At the close of the evidence, respondent was permitted, over objection of petitioner, to amend his answer to conform to the proof by setting up petitioner's fraud in making the 1919 return.

SPARKS, Circuit Judge.

Petitioner attacks the Board's determination upon the following grounds: First, the evidence does not sustain the findings, either with respect to the amount of income received in 1919 by petitioner by virtue of such bond premiums, or with respect to the existence of fraud on the part of petitioner in making his return; second, the findings actually made do not sustain the ultimate conclusion; and, third, the statute of limitations had run against any assessment.

Respondent has filed a motion to dismiss the appeal on the ground that the petition for review of the Board's order of redetermination was received and lodged with the Board on September 30, 1929, which was one day after the expiration of six months from the date of the order of redetermination, and hence was beyond the time granted by statute in which a petition for review may be filed. Sections 1001, 1005 (a), Revenue Act of 1926, c. 27, 44 Stat. 9 (26 USCA §§ 1224, 1228 (a).

It is petitioner's contention, however, that since his petition for a rehearing filed on July 8, 1929, was not denied until September 20, 1929, his time for filing a petition for review was thereby extended for six months from the last-named date. It is conceded by respondent that in the federal courts the filing of a motion to reopen or vacate a judgment or decision stops the running of the time for appeal, and that it begins to run anew from the time the motion is disposed of. Morse v. United States, 270 U. S. 151, 46 S. Ct. 241, 70 L. Ed. 518. Respondent insists, however, that this well-established practice is not sufficient to override the plain words of the statutes, which provide that the appeal must be taken within six months after the decision is rendered, and that the decision shall become final upon the expiration of the time allowed for filing a petition for review, if no such petition has been duly filed within such time.

With respondent's contention we are unable to agree, and we see no reason why the general and uniform rule should not be applied to these statutes in the same manner as applied to other similar statutes. In Morse v. United States, supra, the statute under discussion provides that all appeals from the Court of Claims shall be taken within ninety days after judgment is rendered; and if a motion for a new trial or a petition for a rehearing was duly and seasonably filed it suspends the running of the statute, and the time within which the proceeding must be initiated begins from the date of the denial of either the motion or petition.

Petitioner has filed a motion in this court to strike from the record on review what purports to be an income and profits tax waiver of the time prescribed by law for making any assessment of the amount of taxes due for the year 1919. It also purports to have been signed by petitioner on November 3, 1925, and to have been approved on November 14, 1925, by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue. The motion to strike is upon the ground that the paper is not identified as an exhibit, that it is not shown by the record to have been introduced in evidence at the hearing before the Board, and that its incorporation in the printed record was without authority.

A perusal of the record shows that such a paper was never offered in evidence and was never mentioned in the entire proceedings. It is not certified in any manner by the clerk of the Board as being a part of, or in any manner connected with, the record in the cause; yet it is set forth on page 80 of the transcript, between Respondent's Exhibits D and E, with no identification whatever, and no explanation as to its presence. Respondent contends that it should be considered as a part of Exhibit E (which is petitioner's income tax return for the year 1919) for the reason that the sixty-day letter which was mailed to petitioner was offered and introduced in evidence as a part of respondent's Exhibit E, and that according to the custom of respondent, concerning which the record is silent, the waiver in ordinary course would have been...