Opinion ID: 1468274
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Zere Summons

Text: In June 2006, as part of the same investigation, Leboff issued a third-party summons to Marie Zere, President of Zere Real Estate Services, Inc. The summons requested that Zere appear on August 7, 2006, and that she produce (1) all documents created since January 1, 1997 pertaining to a lawsuit filed by Zere Real Estate Services against Adamag Realty Corp.; (2) all documents created since January 1, 1997 relating to the relationship between Paul Aniboli and Mary Adamowicz, Michael Adamowicz, Elizabeth Fraser, and Adamag Realty Corp.; and (3) all documents created since January 1, 1997 evidencing a donative intent by Mary Adamowicz to Michael Adamowicz and Elizabeth Fraser. Adamowicz and Fraser filed a petition to quash the summons, asserting that the summons was overly broad and that it was served for the improper purpose of harassing and intimidating them. In their petition, they asserted many of the same allegations of improper purpose that they had made in their petition to quash the three earlier third-party summonses. The government moved to dismiss the petition and to order compliance with the summons, and again submitted a supporting declaration from Leboff. In her declaration, Leboff explained that Mary Adamowicz had owned a 52% interest in Adamag and that Aniboli and the executors had participated in the sale of property owned by Adamag. Her declaration continued: The documents sought in the Zere summons are necessary to aid in the determination for estate and gift tax purposes [of] the value of the Adamag property and the character of the transfer of the property from Adamag to the company controlled by Aniboli and decedent's children; that is, whether that transfer should be construed to be in some part a gift from the decedent to her children. As to postmortem records requested, [3] Leboff explained that in her experience as an examiner, it is almost always necessary to review postmortem records to arrive at the correct determination of the estate tax, because property at issue may have been transferred shortly after a decedent's death. Such transfers, Leboff declared, would shed light on the amount and nature of any gratuitous transfer that may have occurred when the decedent transferred these properties to her children in the first instance. On September 28, 2007, the district court denied the petition to quash the Zere summons and ordered that it be enforced. The district court relied upon Leboff's declaration to find that the government had met its burden of establishing that the summons should be enforced under Powell. The district court also stated that Adamowicz's and Fraser's submissions did not counter the Leboff Declaration nor support their claim of improper purpose. Adamowicz and Fraser appeal from the district court's decisions in both cases.