Wodehouse v. Commissioner’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

13 federal appellate ·

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 21 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The language of some of the decisions gives seeming support to this idea, but when the exact point in controversy in these cases is ascertained, it will be seen that the courts were concerned with procedural matters and did not undertake to controvert the undeniable fact that serial rights, book rights, dramatic production rights and motion picture rights of a literary production are property rights which 'may be and are separately and effectively bought and sold in the literary market. * * * “The authorities cited in Rohmer v. Commissioner [2 Cir., 153 F.2d 61 ], supra, on the indivisibility of the copy- ! right do not show that there is anything inherent in the nature of a copyright which renders impossible the separate sales of the several parts which comprise the whole. * * * “The courts have been repeatedly admonished that in matters of taxation they should' be governed by the substance rather than the form of a transaction, and should not be diverted from the realities by undue consideration of the technical refinements of title to property.”.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 105 F. Supp. 384 - Herwig v. United States

2. “Since we have reached the conclusion that the payments received by the taxpayer were not taxable at all, we have no occasion to consider the question whether the Commissioner should have taxed less than the total amount received from the Curtis Publishing Company which covered publication rights not only in the United States but also in Canada. Nor have we occasion to consider the question whether the taxpayer could reduce his taxable income by transferring to his wife a share of the proceeds from the sale of his literary productions before publication.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Wodehouse v. Commissioner

3. “The income need not be paid annually if it is paid periodically; that is to say, from time to time, whether or not at regular intervals. That the length of time during which the payments are to be made may be increased or diminished in accordance with someone's will or with the happening of an event does not make the payments any the less determinable or periodical.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Wodehouse