U.S. v. Harrison, 81-1063
| Decision Date | 15 July 1981 |
| Docket Number | No. 81-1063,81-1063 |
| Parties | 81-2 USTC P 9558 UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Mary K. HARRISON, as Trustee of Charles L. Harrison Family Equity Trust, Appellant, Don Steele, Assistant Manager, Thomson and McKinnon, Auchinclos, Kohlmeyer, Inc. Charles L. Harrison, as Trustee of Charles L. Harrison Family Equity Trust, Appellant. County Bank of Chesterfield. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
John F. Murray, Acting Asst. Atty. Gen., Michael L. Paup, Charles E. Brookhart, William A. Whitledge, Attys., Tax Division, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., for appellee; Robert D. Kingsland, U. S. Atty., St. Louis, Mo., of counsel.
Charles L. Harrison and Mary K. Harrison, pro se.
Before HEANEY, STEPHENSON and McMILLIAN, Circuit Judges.
Mary Kay Harrison and Charles L. Harrison appeal from a December 30, 1980, order of the United States District Court holding them in contempt of court and fining them each $100 per day until they produce records in response to Internal Revenue Service summonses. We affirm.
The summonses in question were issued as part of a tax liability investigation of an entity known as the Charles L. Harrison Family Equity Trust. The IRS issued summonses to a bank and to the assistant manager of a brokerage firm, requiring them to produce their business records of transactions taken by or on behalf of the Trust. It also issued summonses to each Harrison, as trustees of the Trust, requiring that the books and records of the Trust be produced for examination. The Harrisons caused the bank and brokerage firm to refuse compliance with the summonses under section 7609 of the Internal Revenue Code, and also refused to comply with the summonses issued them as trustees.
The government petitioned the district court for orders enforcing all four summonses. A hearing was conducted before a United States Magistrate who filed a report recommending that the summonses be enforced. The district court ordered enforcement of the summonses on March 3, 1980. 1 The Harrisons' appeal to this Court was dismissed for failure to prosecute on August 15, 1980. On August 29, 1980, the district court again ordered the Harrisons to comply.
On September 30, 1980, Charles L. Harrison appeared before the IRS agent as ordered, but he refused to produce the documents as required, justifying his refusal as an exercise of his Fifth Amendment privilege against compulsory self-incrimination. Mary Kay Harrison did likewise on October 8, 1980. The United States then filed a petition in district court seeking to have the Harrisons held in contempt for their failure to obey the court's order to produce the records. Following a hearing, the United States Magistrate recommended that the Harrisons be held in contempt and each fined $100 per day until the documents were produced. By order of December 30, 1980, the district court adopted the magistrate's recommendation. On February 18, 1981, this Court granted a stay of the district court's order pending disposition of this appeal.
The Harrisons' primary contention on appeal is that their refusal to comply with the district court's production order was excused by their invocation of the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. This contention is without merit.
The Fifth Amendment privilege, of course, protects against compulsory production of an individual's personal papers and effects as well as oral testimony. It is well established, moreover, that this privilege applies to the business records of sole proprietors or sole practitioners, as well as to documents of a purely personal nature. See Bellis v. United States, 417 U.S. 85, 87, 94 S.Ct. 2179, 2182, 40 L.Ed.2d 678 (1974). "On the other hand, an equally long line of cases has established that an individual cannot rely upon the...
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