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255 F.2d 84

Docket No. 16736.

Hector v. United States

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals

Decided March 18, 1958.

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals · decided 1958-03-18

2 counsel of record

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“(a) Length of period. — Where the assessment of any tax imposed by this title has been made within the period of limitation properly applicable thereto, such tax may be collected by levy or by a proceeding in court, but only if the levy is made or the proceeding begun— (1) within 10 years after the assessment of the tax, or (2) .... If a timely proceeding in court for the collection of a tax is commenced, the period during which such tax may be collected by levy shall be extended and shall not expire until the liability for the tax (or a judgment against the taxpayer arising from such liability) is satisfied or becomes unenforceable.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 761 F. Supp. 2d 1158 - United States v. Edelman

“2 7 26 U.S.C.A. Sec. 6502(a). In the instant case there is no question that the assessments against Maggie Tookes were timely made under 26 U.S.C.A. Sec. 6501. However, the plaintiff asserts that section 6502(a) barred the government's foreclosure suits in this case because such suits were not brought within six years after the assessment of the tax. To pursue his argument it is necessary that the plaintiff assert that the phrase”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Moyer v. Mathas

Applies 26 U.S.C. § 276

Relies on Bowers v. New York & Albany Lighterage Co. · Investment & Securities Co. v. United States · United States v. Havner

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Opinion by (per_curiam) · Decided 1958-03-18

How this case has been cited

Cited by 18 later decisions — most recently February 2011

10 federal appellate · 1 district ·

601958196019701980199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1*85Robert Ward, Miami, Fla. (Ward & Ward, Miami, Fla., on the brief), for appellant.

¶2Charles K. Rice, Asst. Atty. Gen., Lee A. Jackson, Ellis N. Slack, I. Henry Kutz, S. Dee Hanson, Attys., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., James L. Guilmartin, U. S. Atty., Miami, Fla. (Richard R. Booth, Asst. U. S. Atty., Miami, Fla., on the brief), for appellee.

¶3Before HUTCHESON, Chief Judge, and BORAH and TUTTLE, Circuit Judges.

¶4PER CURIAM.

¶5Appealing from the judgment for individual income taxes timely assessed against him, entered in “a proceeding in court … begun (1) within six years after the assessment of the tax” to obtain an in personam judgment against him for the amount of the assessed and unpaid taxes, taxpayer is here insisting that it was entered in derogation, indeed in violation of the limitation upon collection of income taxes after assessment imposed by Sec. 276(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939.1

¶6Putting the basic question involved in this appeal as he sees it, the taxpayer thus states it:

“Can the United States of America several weeks prior to the expiration of the six year Statute of Limitations as provided in the Internal Revenue Code, file a suit against a taxpayer against whom the Government has an assessment, not for the purpose of attempting to collect the assessment but purely for the purpose of obtaining a judgment against him in the Federal Courts, which judgment after rendition will under Florida law be good for an additional seven years after the entry of the judgment, or is the United States of America limited under the applicable statutes to a period of six years after the assessment in which to collect the tax and if the tax is not collected within that time, any further proceedings or actions are barred?”

¶7Thus stating the question and standing upon United States v. Havner, D.C., 21 F.Supp. 985 (reversed in the Court of Appeals, 8 Cir., 101 F.2d 161), Bowers v. New York & Albany Lighterage Co., 273 U.S. 346, 47 S.Ct. 389, 71 L.Ed. 676, and Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Wilson, 10 Cir., 60 F.2d 501, appellant contends that the effect of the judgment appealed from is to amend the statute by extending the six year period of limitation for “collection after assessment” by seven years, the life of a judgment under the Statutes of Florida.

¶8The United States thus states the question presented:

“Whatever the District Court, in entering the judgment appealed from, infringed in the six year period of limitation upon collection of income taxes after assessment, imposed by Sec. 276(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939, when within the six year period suit was begun in the court below for an in personam judgment against the taxpayer for the amount of such assessed and unpaid taxes, although the judgment was not entered until *86after the expiration of that period, and whether, as so construed, Sec. 276(c) violates the Constitution of the United States.”

¶9So stating and opposing to appellant’s contentions the language of the statute and United States v. Havner, 8 Cir., 101 F.2d 161, Investment & Securities Co. v. U. S., 9 Cir., 140 F.2d 894, United States v. Ettelson, 7 Cir., 159 F.2d 193, and United States v. Saslavsky, D.C., 160 F.Supp. 883, appellee insists that the position of the appellant is completely without merit and the judgment must be affirmed.

¶10We agree that this is so and on the plain and clear language of the statute and the authority of the above cited cases, the judgment is Affirmed.

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