Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Culbertson et Ux. (337 U.S. 733)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 27, 1949 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 337 U.S. 733 · 69 S. Ct. 1210
- Docket
- No. 313
- Argued
- February 7, 1949
- Decided
- June 27, 1949
- Term
- October Term 1948
- Vote
- 8–1
- Majority author
- Justice Vinson
- Issue area
- Federal Taxation
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson (wrote), Justice Burton (wrote a concurrence), Justice Douglas, Justice Frankfurter (wrote a concurrence), Justice Reed, Justice Black (wrote a concurrence), Justice Rutledge (wrote a concurrence), Justice Murphy
- Dissenting
- Justice R. H. Jackson (wrote)
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Chief Justice Vinson delivered the opinion of the Court. This case requires our further consideration of the family partnership problem. The Commissioner of Internal Revenue ruled that the entire income from-a partnership allegedly entered into by respondent and his four sons must be taxed to respondent, and the Tax Court sustained that determination. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed. 168 F. 2d 979. We granted certiorari, 335 U. S. 883, to consider the Commissioner’s claim that thq. principles of Commissioner v. Tower, 327 U. S. 280 (1946), and Lusthaus v. Commissioner, 327 U. S. 293 (1946), have been departed from in this and other courts of appeals decisions. Respondent taxpayer is a rancher. From 1915 until October 1939, he had operated a cattle business in partnership with R. S. Coon. Coon, who had numerous business interests in the Southwest and had largely financed the partnership, was 79 years old in 1939 and desired to dissolve the partnership because of ill health. To that end, the bulk of the partnership herd was sold until, in October of that year, only about 1,500 head remained. These cattle were all registered Herefords, the brood or foundation herd. Culbertson wished to keep these cattle and approached Coon with an. ffer of $65 a head. Coon agreed to sell at that price, Dut only upon condition that Culbertson would sell an undivided…
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