Case ID: us-ct-cl_54/html/0196-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Mr. Justice McKenna", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

HENRY L. RAND AND EDWARD L. RAND, EXECUTORS OF JENNIE LATHROP RAND, DECEASED, v. THE UNITED STATES.
    [52 C. Cls., 72, 285; 249 U. S., 503.]
    Judgment was rendered in favor of the defendants in the court below. On appeal the judgment was affirmed, and the Supreme Court decided:
    Revised Statutes, section 3226, providing that no suit shall be maintained for recovery of illegal or erroneous taxes until appeal made to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue and decision had thereon, and fixing a period within which suit may be brought when his decision is delayed more than six months; was made applicable by section 31 of the war revenue act of Juno 3, 1898, 30 Statutes, 448, 464, to inheritance taxes collected under that act.
    As applied to a claim for a refund of such inheritance taxes, this bar of Revised Statutes, section 3226, and the bar of section 3228, which requires all claims for the refunding of erroneous or illegal taxes to be presented to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue within two years next after the cause of action accrued, were removed by the acts of June 27, 1902, chapter 1160, section 3, 32 Statutes, 406, and of July 27, 1912, chapter 256, 37 Statutes, 240, if the claimant complied with their requirements and presented his claim to the commissioner.
    The fact that a tax.was voluntarily paid, without protest, is not an impediment to a refund under the act of July 27, 1912, supra. United States v. Hvoslef, 237 TI. S., 1.
    The act of July 27, 1912, supra, section 2, in providing that repayment shall be made to “ such claimants as have presented or shall hereafter present their claims,” requires, a positive and individual assertion of the claim, within the time limited ; the claimant may not rely upon claims presented by others not manifestly his own or dearly made on his behalf, nor excuse the presentation of his claim upon the assumption that it would have been useless, judged by results in other cases.
   Mr. Justice McKenna

delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court April 21, 1919.