Bartels et al., Doing Business As Crystal Ballroom, v. Birmingham, Collector of Internal Revenue, et al. (332 U.S. 126)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 23, 1947 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 332 U.S. 126 · 67 S. Ct. 1547
- Docket
- No. 731
- Argued
- April 3, 1947
- Decided
- June 23, 1947
- Term
- October Term 1946
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Reed
- Issue area
- Federal Taxation
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Burton, Justice R. H. Jackson, Justice Frankfurter, Justice Reed (wrote), Justice Rutledge
- Dissenting
- Justice Douglas (wrote), Justice Black, Justice Murphy
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Reed delivered the opinion of the Court. Petitioners, operators of public dance halls, brought these actions, which were consolidated for trial, against the respondent Collector of Internal Revenue to recover taxes paid under the Social Security Act, Titles VIII and IX, and I. R. C., c. 9, subchap. A and C. Recovery depends on whether petitioners’ arrangements for bands to play at the dance halls made the band leaders and other members of the bands employees of the petitioners or whether, despite the arrangements, the leaders were independent contractors and therefore themselves the employers of the other members. Several band leaders were allowed to intervene in the Bartels case as defendants to protect their own interests. After a recovery in the District Court, 59 F. Supp. 84, was reversed by the Circuit Court of Appeals, Birmingham v. Bartels, 157 F. 2d 295, petitioners sought certiorari which we granted because of the importance of the issue to the administration of the Act. 329 U. S. 711. See United States v. Silk and Harrison v. Greyvan Lines, 331 U. S. 704. These cases are not concerned with musicians hired by petitioners to play regularly for their dance halls but with “name bands” hired to play for limited engagements at their establishments. These bands are built around a leader whose name, and distinctive style in the presentation and rendition of…
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