Sorrentino v. U.S.
| Decision Date | 08 January 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. CIV.A.01-K-129.,CIV.A.01-K-129. |
| Citation | 199 F.Supp.2d 1068 |
| Parties | Rolly J. SORRENTINO and Joann M. Sorrentino, husband and wife, Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Colorado |
Rolly J. Sorrentino, Wheat Ridge, CO, Pro se.
Joann M. Sorrentino, Wheat Ridge, CO, Pro se.
August A. Imholtz, III, U.S. Department of Justice Tax Division, Washington, DC, for Defendant.
Plaintiffs Rolly and Joann Sorrentino, appearing pro se, seek a refund of federal income taxes overpaid during the 1994 tax year in the amount of $8551.00, plus interest, costs and attorney fees. Defendant United States concedes the Sorrentinos overpaid their 1994 federal income taxes in this amount, but has refused to refund their overpayment on the ground the Sorrentinos cannot prove they filed their refund claim by the applicable deadline. On October 25, 2001, I denied the United States' motion for summary judgment. Sorrentino v. United States (Sorrentino I), 171 F.Supp.2d 1150 (D.Colo.2001). For the reasons set forth below, I grant the Sorrentinos' subsequent motion for summary judgment.1
The following facts are undisputed unless otherwise stated.
The deadline for the Sorrentinos to claim a refund for federal taxes overpaid in the 1994 tax year was April 15, 1998. In March, 1995, Mr. Sorrentino, an engineer, prepared a draft of his and his wife's joint federal tax return for 1994, which included a refund claim. He submitted a copy of this draft return to the financial aid office at their daughter's university in August, 1995, but did not finalize the return at this time because he was waiting for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to respond to his request for an "INPOL report" or transcript of all of his income as recorded by the IRS for the 1994 tax year. Mr. Sorrentino intended to use this report, which he had requested and received for previous tax years, to determine whether certain income he had received should be reported in the 1994 or 1995 tax year.
Mr. Sorrentino received an incomplete INPOL report from the IRS in September, 1995. After being absent from his home on a work project for nearly two years, he submitted a second request to the IRS for a 1994 INPOL report in September, 1997. When he did not receive the requested report, and with the April 15, 1998 filing deadline approaching, Mr. Sorrentino completed the 1994 return without the benefit of the INPOL report.
Mr. Sorrentino completed the 1994 joint tax return by March 1, 1998. On this date, both he and his wife signed and dated the return. On or about March 3, 1998, more than six weeks before the April 15, 1998 filing deadline, Mr. Sorrentino testified he personally placed the original of the 1994 tax return, postage prepaid and properly addressed to the IRS's processing facility in Austin, Texas, in a mail drop at the United States Post Office in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. He did not mail the return by certified or registered mail. Mr. Sorrentino retained a copy of the original return for his and his wife's records.
In September, 1998, Mr. Sorrentino contacted the IRS via its toll-free information line to ask why he had not received the refund claimed in his March 1, 1998 return. The IRS representative informed him the IRS did not have a record of receiving the return and directed him to send the agency a copy of the return.
The IRS received a photocopy of the Sorrentinos' 1994 return, dated March 1, 1998, on October 2, 1998. The IRS has no record of receiving the original return Mr. Sorrentino mailed to it in early March, 1998. As a result, the IRS treated the copy of the tax return it received on October 2, 1998 as the Sorrentinos' original return and, on January 28, 1999, disallowed the refund it claimed on the ground it was filed after the April 15, 1998 filing deadline. The IRS denied the Sorrentinos' appeal of this decision by letter dated May 11, 1999. The Sorrentinos' timely filed this action on January 23, 2001.
Summary judgment is appropriate "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). In applying this standard. I view the evidence and draw reasonable inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Simms v. Oklahoma ex rel. Dep't of Mental Health & Substance Abuse Servs., 165 F.3d 1321, 1326 (10th Cir.1999). The Sorrentinos, as the moving party, have the initial burden of showing the absence of a genuine issue of material fact and that they are entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Id. If the Sorrentinos carry this burden, then the burden shifts to the United States to "set forth specific facts showing there is a genuine issue for trial." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(e); see Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 256, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). A genuine issue of material fact exists if a rational juror could decide the disputed allegations in the non-movant's favor based on the evidence presented and the disputed fact might affect the outcome of the suit under the governing law. See Schwartz v. Bhd. of Maint. of Way Employees, 264 F.3d 1181, 1183 (10th Cir.2001).
The parties agree that if the Sorrentinos' 1994 tax return was delivered to the IRS on or before April 15, 1998, or if the return was placed in the mail and postmarked on or before this date, then their refund claim was timely filed and the United States is required to refund the $8551.00 in federal taxes the Sorrentinos overpaid for the 1994 tax year.2 The former scenario is based on the general rule that filing occurs upon physical delivery to the IRS, see Sorrentino I, 171 F.Supp.2d at 1153, and the latter on the statutory postmark rule, stated at 26 U.S.C. § 7502, which effectively extends the filing deadline by providing that in certain circumstances a document mailed to the IRS is deemed delivered and hence filed on the date it is postmarked, rather than on the date it is physically delivered to the IRS.
In Sorrentino I, I considered the United States' motion for summary judgment, in which it argued the Sorrentinos could not prove timely filing under either scenario because they admitted mailing their 1994 return, rather than physically delivering it to the out-of-state IRS processing facility and further admitted they had not mailed it certified or registered mail as, the United States argued, was required to invoke the statutory postmark rule. I denied the United States' motion upon determining that the Sorrentinos could, in fact, prove physical delivery of their 1994 tax return to the IRS pursuant to the common law mailbox rule. See 171 F.Supp.2d at 1152-54; see also Schikore v. BankAm. Supplemental Ret. Plan, 269 F.3d 956, 961 (9th Cir.2001) (). As a result, it was not necessary to reach the United States' argument that the Sorrentinos could not prove timely filing under the separate statutory postmark rule.
As stated by the Tenth Circuit, the common law mailbox rule provides Crude Oil Corp. v. Comm'r of Internal Revenue, 161 F.2d 809, 810 (10th Cir.1947); see, e.g., Hagner v. United States, 285 U.S. 427, 430, 52 S.Ct. 417, 76 L.Ed. 861 (1932); Witt v. Roadway Express, 136 F.3d 1424, 1429-30 (10th Cir.1998). This rule applies to mailings by taxpayers to the IRS. See, e.g., Crude Oil Corp., 161 F.2d at 810; Lewis v. United States, 144 F.3d 1220, 1222 (9th Cir.1998); Arkansas Motor Coaches, Ltd. v. Comm'r of Internal Revenue, 198 F.2d 189, 191 (8th Cir.1952).
In Sorrentino I, I determined that the evidence then in the record was sufficient for a reasonable juror to find that the Sorrentinos properly mailed their return in time for it to be delivered to the IRS weeks before the April 15, 1998 filing deadline. As a result, I found that the Sorrentinos were entitled, under the common law mailbox rule, to a rebuttable presumption that their 1994 tax return was timely filed with the IRS. As the United States failed to submit any evidence in support of its motion rebutting the presumption of delivery, I ruled it had failed to prove the absence of a genuine issue of fact regarding the timely filing of the Sorrentinos' 1994 return and refund claim and therefore denied its motion.
My holding in Sorrentino I that the Sorrentinos had presented sufficient evidence of mailing to invoke the common law mailbox rule a fortiori means they have submitted sufficient evidence of mailing and, under the rebuttable presumption, delivery and timely filing, to carry their initial burden of demonstrating the absence of any genuine issues of fact in connection with their motion for summary judgment. In order to avoid summary judgment based on the Sorrentinos' motion, therefore, the United States was required to set forth specific facts showing a genuine issue of fact as to either the fact of mailing or the presumed fact of delivery. See Fed. R.Civ.P. 56(e).
The United States did not present any evidence disputing that Mr. Sorrentino properly mailed...
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