Alison v. United States (344 U.S. 167)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided December 8, 1952 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 344 U.S. 167 · 73 S. Ct. 191
- Decided
- December 8, 1952
- Term
- October Term 1952
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Black
- Issue area
- Federal Taxation
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Black delivered the opinion of the Court. The questions in these two income tax cases are so much alike that they can be treated in one opinion. Both taxpayers had moneys embezzled by trusted agents and employees. As' usual, the defalcations had been going on for many years before they were discovered. On discovery, efforts were made immediately to identify the takers and fix the dates and amounts of the thefts. In the Alison case, No. 79, the books revealed the thief and the precise amounts taken each year from 1931 to 1940. In No. 80, Stevenson-Chislett, Inc., the cover-up had been so successful that painstaking investigation failed to reveal who took the funds or the time when the un-ascertained person or persons took them. Each taxpayer claimed a tax deduction for the year the losses were discovered and their amounts ascertained. The Government objected, claiming that the deduction should have been taken in each of the prior years during which the moneys were being surreptitiously taken. In the Stevenson-Chislett case, the District Court held that the uncertain circumstances of the embezzlement entitled the taxpayer to take its losses the year the loss was discovered and the amount ascertained. 98 F. Supp. 252. The District Judge decided the other way in the Alison case and denied her declarations. 97 F. Supp. 959. His holding, however, was not in accord with…
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