Rothensies, Collector of Internal Revenue, v. Electric Storage Battery Co. (329 U.S. 296)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided December 16, 1946 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 329 U.S. 296 · 67 S. Ct. 271
- Docket
- No. 48
- Argued
- November 15, 1946
- Decided
- December 16, 1946
- Term
- October Term 1946
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Jackson (R.H.)
- Issue area
- Federal Taxation
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Burton, Justice R. H. Jackson (wrote), Justice Douglas, Justice Frankfurter, Justice Reed
- Dissenting
- Justice Black, Justice Rutledge, Justice Murphy (wrote)
Opinion excerpt
Me. Justice Jackson delivered the opinion of the Court. This case represents an effort, thus far successful, to obtain advantage by way of recoupment of a claim for tax refund long since barred by the statute of limitations. The facts of this singular situation are not in dispute. From April 1919 to April 1926 the Electric Storage Battery Company paid excise taxes on the sale of storage batteries in the belief, shared by the Government, that such sales were subject to tax. In July of 1926 the company asserted otherwise and filed a refund claim. It asked refund only of that part of the taxes which it had paid between 1922 and 1926. Refund of the taxes paid earlier which the company now seeks to recoup was then barred by the statute of limitations and no claim ever has been filed for their refund and no action ever was begun for their recovery. Suit was brought, however, against the Collector for refund of the taxes paid after July 1922; judgment therefor was obtained in the District Court and affirmed by the Circuit Court of Appeals. The Government finally settled by refund of $1,395,515.35, of which $825,151.52 represented tax and the balance interest. During the years that the refunded excise tax was being collected, the taxpayer deducted it from income before calculation of its income tax, thereby deriving substantial benefits. The Commissioner, therefore, treated the…
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