Wheeler v. Holland, 15142.
| Decision Date | 18 January 1955 |
| Docket Number | No. 15142.,15142. |
| Citation | 218 F.2d 482 |
| Parties | Andrew Jackson WHEELER, v. W. W. HOLLAND, as Director of Internal Revenue of the United States for the Collection District of Georgia and United States of America. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Hal Lindsay, Atlanta, Ga., for appellant.
James Q. Riordan and Ellis N. Slack, Sp. Assts. to Atty. Gen., H. Brian Holland, Asst. Atty. Gen., James W. Dorsey, U. S. Atty., Charles D. Read, Jr., Asst. U. S. Atty., Atlanta, Ga., for appellee.
Before HUTCHESON, Chief Judge, and HOLMES and RUSSELL, Circuit Judges.
In April, 1951, appellant executed a United States Treasury Department Form 870, waiving1 the restrictions on assessment and collection of income tax, penalties and interest for the taxable years 1942-1947, inclusive. Pursuant to this waiver, assessments in excess of $50,000 were made against appellant, warrants for distraint were issued and collection procedures were instituted. Appellant, contending that he does not actually owe the amount of taxes assessed against him and that the waiver was extorted from him by means of fraud and duress, instituted this action to enjoin what he characterizes arbitrary and capricious abuse of process. After a full trial on the merits, the trial court, sitting without a jury, found appellant's contentions unfounded in law and in fact and entered an order dismissing the complaint. Appellant prosecutes this appeal from that judgment, asking this Court to review the evidence and to hold that the findings of the trial court are clearly erroneous.
The memorandum findings of fact and conclusions of law entered by the trial court are reported at 120 F.Supp. 383. Reference thereto makes it unnecessary for us to relate the facts disclosed by the record in detail. It is sufficient to say that appellant's evidence was intended to prove that Internal Revenue Agent Young threatened him with criminal prosecution for income tax evasion if he refused to execute the waiver; that appellant was offered a choice of agreeing to the proposed assessment or being confronted with a larger one; that the Revenue Agents refused to give proper consideration to appellant's proposals, and that the assessments to which appellant agreed were so excessive that no rational, uncoerced person would have consented to them. In refutation of this evidence, appellees relied upon testimony denying each of the contentions advanced by appellant and showing that the ultimate...
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U.S. v. $242,484.00
...the evidence, and such reasonable inferences as may be drawn therefrom, in the light most favorable to the appellees." Wheeler v. Holland, 218 F.2d 482, 483 (5th Cir.1955). Second, we review de novo "whether the rule of law as applied to the established facts is or is not violated." Id. at ......
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Hawkins v. Town of Shaw, Mississippi
...review. We must view the evidence in the light and with all reasonable inferences most favorable to the judgment below. Wheeler v. Holland, 218 F.2d 482 (5th Cir.1955); Firemen's Insurance Company of Newark, New Jersey v. Robbins Coal Company, 288 F.2d 349 (5th Cir.1961), cert. den. 368 U.S......
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Des Isles v. Evans
...stands unless it is demonstrated that it is clearly erroneous. We have expressed the rule recently in this manner, Wheeler v. Holland, 5 Cir., 1955, 218 F.2d 482, 483: "Unfortunately for him, in determining whether those findings are clearly erroneous, this court must consider the evidence,......
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Southern Railway Company v. Campbell
...of the evidence and the reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom. Rule 52(a), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure; Wheeler v. Holland, 218 F.2d 482 (5th Cir., 1955); and Des Isles v. Evans, 225 F.2d 235 (5th Cir., Appellant's complaint concerning the trial court's order for the production o......