United States v. Foster Lumber Co.’s Empirical Analysis
1976
Citation profile
34 federal appellate · 4 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 90 later decisions (7 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 2016 · most notably In the Matter of Mobile Steel Company, Debtor. Elaine E. Benjamin v. Lester Y. Diamond, as Trustee in Bankruptcy for Mobile Steel, Inc. (1977), Centex Corporation Ctx v. United States (2005)
34 federal appellate · 4 state decisions
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.
Appellate journey
reviewedFoster Lumber Co. v. United States (from Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 26 U.S.C. § 1201 · 26 U.S.C. § 122 · 26 U.S.C. § 172 · 26 U.S.C. § 593
Relies on Burnet v. Sanford & Brooks Co. · Harrison v. Schaffner · Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody · United States v. Olympic Radio & Television, Inc. · Libson Shops, Inc., v. Koehler, District Director of Internal Revenue
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 90 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The question is whether the two "tax benefit” provisions relied on by the [taxpayer] — low capital gain taxation under the alternative method and the loss carryback provision — must each be maximized independently of the other or whether Congress instead anticipated that the benefit provided by the loss deduction might on occasion be subsumed in the greater benefit provided by the alternative tax computation method. [United States v. Foster Lumber Co., supra at 40.]”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“Congress has specifically tailored definitions of taxable income in other sections of the Code when the § 63(a) definition is inadequate for its purposes. See, e. g., IRC § 593(b)(2)(E) (mutual savings banks); IRC § 832(a) (insurance companies); IRC § 852(b)(2) (regulated investment companies). (Emphasis added).”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“by carryback and carryforward of net operating losses. Since petitioners did not incur a net operating loss in 1970 available for carryforward, respondent contends that they have no remaining loss available to carryforward to the taxable years 1971 and 1972. The dispute in this case centers on the meaning of”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.