Rowell v. Commissioner’s Empirical Analysis
1928
Citation profile
1 federal appellate ·
Relationships
Relies on Higginbotham-Bailey-Logan Co. v. Commissioner · Alemite Die Casting & Mfg. Co. v. Commissioner · Valdosta Grocery Co. v. Commissioner · Kohn v. Commissioner · Furuya v. Commissioner
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The burden then is upon the petitioner to establish that it did make certain during the taxable year that the debts claimed as deductions were without value. We take it for granted that when Congress authorizes this Board to decide the issues arising between a taxpayer and the Commissioner in such a case as this, such taxpayer has not established the correctness of his contention by his bald statement that he believes it to be worthless, or that he ascertained it to be worthless or that, on undisclosed information he came to the conclusion that it was worthless. To so hold would be to put the Government in the hands of the taxpayer and substitute his judgment as to the conclusion to be drawn from the facts for that of the body created to decide the issue. Nor is it a question whether the taxpayer believed the debt to be worthless. To so hold would be to grant an undue advantage to the pessimist or to the taxpayer who makes no investigation. In our opinion the burden upon the petitioner is to show what steps he took to collect the debt, what information came to his knowledge and what other circumstances existed which led him to his conclusion. It then becomes the duty of the Board to determine whether the debt was in fact ascertained to be worthless within the meaning of the law. Appeal of Alemite Die Casting & Manufacturing Co., 1 B. T. A. 548.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“In the instant proceeding the petitioner testified as to eleven of the items claimed as worthless debts, but no evidence was submitted to show when the debts were ascertained to be worthless, nor were the facts upon which such ascertainment was based presented in each case. Most of the debts were outstanding as of March I, 1913, and it is not shown that they were more uncol-lectible in 1919 than in prior years.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.