Case Name: Dennis M. and Linda BABEAUX, Appellees, v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Appellant; Ira L. PATRICK and Maisie S. Patrick, Appellees, v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Appellant; James Marion WALDROP, Appellee, v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Appellant
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1979-07-12
Citations: 601 F.2d 730
Docket Number: Nos. 78-1015, 78-1018 and 78-1019
Parties: Dennis M. and Linda BABEAUX, Appellees, v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Appellant. Ira L. PATRICK and Maisie S. Patrick, Appellees, v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Appellant. James Marion WALDROP, Appellee, v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Appellant.
Judges: 
Reporter: Federal Reporter 2d Series
Volume: 601
Pages: 730–732

Head Matter:
Dennis M. and Linda BABEAUX, Appellees, v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Appellant. Ira L. PATRICK and Maisie S. Patrick, Appellees, v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Appellant. James Marion WALDROP, Appellee, v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Appellant.
Nos. 78-1015, 78-1018 and 78-1019.
United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.
Argued March 7, 1979.
Decided July 12, 1979.
James A. Riedy, Tax Div., Dept, of Justice, Washington, D. C. (M. Carr Ferguson, Asst. Atty. Gen., Gilbert E. Andrews and Richard Farber, Tax Div., Dept, of Justice, Washington, D. C., on brief), for appellant.
James M. Waldrop, pro se.
Mark Maland, Elizabeth City, N. C., for appellees.
Robert J. Jones, Washington, D. C. (Paul S. Berger, Thomas C. Spring, Arnold & Porter, Washington, D. C., on brief), for amicus curiae Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO.
Before RUSSELL and PHILLIPS, Circuit Judges, and EDWARD DUMBAULD, Senior United States District Judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania, sitting by designation.

Opinion:
PER CURIAM:
Each of the three cases before this court is an appeal by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue from a decision of the Tax Court in which the court sustained certain deductions taken by the respective taxpayers for the tax years 1973 and/or 1974. In general, each case involves a construction worker who accepted employment at a site away from his place of personal residence. The taxpayers lived near their places of employment during the week and ate their meals there, and then traveled to their personal residences for the weekend. There was no definite agreement as to the length of employment, but the construction projects involved were long-term nuclear power plants. The periods of employment ranged from 19 to 32 months, and in each case the taxpayer voluntarily terminated his employment for personal reasons. Taxpayers deducted as business expenses under Section 162(a)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 the cost of lodging and meals at their job sites, and the cost of transportation incurred in traveling between their places of employment and their personal residences.
In Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Peurifoy (4th Cir, 1957) 254 F.2d 483, 486-87, aff'd. 358 U.S. 59, 79 S.Ct. 104, 3 L.Ed.2d 30 (1958) (per curiam) this court had occasion to consider deductions claimed in circumstances almost identical to those in these cases. While recognizing that maintenance and travel expenses would be deductible when employment away from home was temporary and of short duration, the court held that such expenses were not ordinary and necessary business expenses and thus not deductible when the employment is of a substantial or indefinite duration. Finding that the taxpayers had failed to show that their employment was not of indefinite duration, the court sustained the Commissioner's deficiency determinations.
We find the cases presently before us to be indistinguishable from Peurifoy, and accordingly, however sympathetic we may be to the taxpayers' position, we are compelled by Peurifoy to sustain the disallowance of the deductions sought by the taxpayers. The judgments of the Tax Court are, therefore,
REVERSED.