Safety Tube Corp. v. Commissioner of Internal Rev.

• Decision Date: 01 June 1948
• Docket Number: No. 10614.,10614.
• Citation: 168 F.2d 787
• Parties: SAFETY TUBE CORPORATION v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

168 F.2d 787 (1948)

SAFETY TUBE CORPORATION v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE.

No. 10614.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

June 1, 1948.

Garnett S. Andrews, of Nashville, Tenn. (Garnett S. Andrews, of Nashville, Tenn., on the brief), for petitioner.

Fred E. Youngman, of Washington, D. C. (Theron Lamar Caudle, Sewall Key, Robert N. Anderson and Fred E. Youngman, all of Washington, D. C., on the brief), for respondent.

Before HICKS, SIMONS and ALLEN, Circuit Judges.

ALLEN, Circuit Judge.

This is a petition to review a decision of the Tax Court of the United States which sustained a determination of the Commissioner finding deficiencies in income tax of $1,138.23 and in personal holding company surtax of $9,221.34. An item of 25% surtax penalty in the amount of $2,305.34 was not sustained by the Tax Court, and is not involved.

The principal question arises out of the payment of $8,107.35, expenses of litigation, which was claimed as a deduction for the year 1940, upon the ground that it constituted an ordinary and necessary business expense. The Tax Court held that this amount was a capital expenditure and not deductible.

The facts are stipulated, and were adopted in the findings of the Tax Court. They are in substance as follows:

The petitioner, a Delaware corporation with its office at Nashville, Tennessee, was organized September 8, 1939 to take over a patent and other assets held by Garnett S. Andrews as trustee. The patent had been granted in 1933 to Constantine Bradley on an improvement in puncture-healing inner tubes for pneumatic tires. To finance the invention, Bradley solicited subscriptions for stock in a corporation to be formed for the manufacture and sale of the improved tubes, and issued to each subscriber a certificate acknowledging payment for the future shares and reciting an understanding that the money received would be used in perfecting and marketing the tube. Bradley died in December, 1934, having previously assigned the patent to Andrews, who took charge of the enterprise by agreement of the subscribers. On March 30, 1938, Andrews granted Sears, Roebuck & Company the exclusive right to sell the tubes for replacement purposes during a period of two years under a contract whereby a manufacturer would be licensed to produce them under the patent, pay royalties to Andrews, and sell the tubes to customers of Sears, Roebuck & Company. In accordance with the contract, the Cupples Company of St. Louis, Missouri, began manufacture in 1938 and remitted royalties to Andrews.

On August 16, 1939, prior to petitioner's incorporation, Benjamin C. Seaton filed suit in the state courts of Tennessee against Bradley's widow, Andrews, and others, alleging that during or before 1927 he had been granted three patents for improvements on inner tubes for vehicle tires, and had employed Bradley to sell interests therein under contracts which, among other things, provided that Seaton should sell, assign and set over to the purchaser the right to receive a stated percentage of all proceeds derived from the sale of rights under any or all of such patents with the understanding that title to such patents should remain in Seaton. The contracts for the sale of such interests provided:

"It is further understood and agreed by said parties that should any improvements be made by either party on any of the articles forming the subject of said Letters Patent, or any of them, and whether said improvements are patented or not, the same shall be subject to the provisions of this contract in regard to sharing in the proceeds of the sale to others of rights thereto."

The Seaton bill of complaint further alleged that such interests had been sold to various parties, that a like assignment of interest containing the above paragraph had been made to Bradley and his wife, and that the Bradley patent was an improvement on the Seaton patents. The bill of complaint prayed that Andrews be enjoined from disposing of the Bradley patent and any funds paid to him in connection therewith; that Sears, Roebuck & Company be required to make disclosure of the contract and funds paid; and that a decree be entered declaring Seaton the rightful owner of the Bradley patent, of all funds paid to Andrews by Sears, Roebuck & Company, and of the Sears, Roebuck & Company contract. On November 29, 1939, Seaton's bill of complaint was amended to pray, in the alternative, that a decree be entered in favor of Seaton individually and in favor of Seaton for the use and benefit of all persons who had purchased assignments of interests from him, "holding that they are entitled to a percentage of the funds realized from marketing said Bradley patent."

On November 3, 1939, the petitioner, having qualified to do business in Tennessee, was joined as a party defendant after having filed a petition which set forth that Andrews had assigned to it the patent, contract, and royalties upon its express agreement "to immediately qualify to do business under the laws of the State of Tennessee and to intervene in this cause, to the end that this Petitioner might be subject to the orders and decrees of this Court, and to the end that all of said assets received by this Petitioner from defendant Andrews would remain under the jurisdiction of Your Honor's Court and be subject to all orders and decrees of Your Honor * * *." The petition in intervention concluded with the prayer, which was granted, that petitioner be allowed to intervene and become a party defendant. The petitioner thereupon demurred to the Seaton bill of complaint upon the ground that it showed no cause of action. This demurrer was overruled in the chancery court of Davidson County, Tennessee, but on appeal the Supreme Court of Tennessee, on May 21, 1940, entered a decree in which it sustained the petitioner's demurrer "'insofar as it is directed to that part of the fourth prayer for relief, which prays that Seaton be declared to be the rightful owner of the Bradley patent, No. 1,924,148."

On May 18, 1940, the Supreme Court of Tennessee, in the case of Seaton v. Bradley¹ rendered an opinion on the defendants' demurrers in which it stated that the Seaton suit was one seeking to hold Bradley, and those claiming under him, liable as a constructive trustee for an alleged breach of trust and confidence, and to compel them to render an accounting for unjust enrichment, and continued:

"We, therefore, conclude that the facts, well pleaded in the bill, are sufficient to create a constructive trust as against Bradley and those claiming through him by immediate or ultimate assignment."

The Supreme Court of Tennessee sent the case back for trial on the remainder of the issues raised by the bill of complaint. At the trial the jury failed to agree, and...