Court Opinion

ID: 4493240
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2020-01-17 22:03:50.951115+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:03:59.781708
License: Public Domain

Black,
dissenting: I dissent from the majority opinion which holds that the transfer of the oil leases in question by E. F. Simms to the Simms Oil Co., a Texas corporation, in consideration of all its capital stock and the contemporaneous transfer of all this capital stock to Simms Petroleum Co., a Delaware corporation, in consideration of 174,990 shares of its stock, were separate taxable transactions. It is my view that they are parts of one transaction by which Simms sold his oil leases to the Delaware corporation in consideration of 174,990 shares of its capital stock and that Simms’ gain or loss in the transaction is measured by the difference between the cost of his leases and the fair market value of the 174,990 shares Simms Petroleum Co. (Delaware corporation) stock at the time he received it. We had practically this same question and situation in Teck Hobbs, 26 B.T.A. 241. In that case, petitioner Henry Hobbs and about 30 associates were the owners of various oil leases in the Burkburnett oil field in Texas. In November 1919, Hobbs and his associates agreed to sell these oil leases to a group of individuals in New York City, headed by C. N. Haskell. After the negotiations had progressed a while, it was agreed that a Delaware corporation should be organized, just as it was agreed in the instant case that a Delaware corporation, the Simms Petroleum Co., should be organized. It was further agreed that the oil leases owned by Hobbs and his associates should not be transferred directly to the Delaware corporation, but that Hobbs and his associates should organize a Texas common law trust, to be called Hobbs Oil Co., all of its capital stock to be issued to Hobbs and his associates in payment of the leases, and then Hobbs and his associates were immediately to transfer this stock of the Hobbs Oil Co. to the Delaware corporation, as had been agreed upon.
Under such circumstances we held that it was all part of one transaction, to wit, the selling by Hobbs and his associates of their *1036oil leases to the Delaware corporation for stock of the latter and cash. In that case we said :
Petitioners’ next contention is that the transfer by Hobbs and associates of their oil properties to the Hobbs Oil Company, a joint stock association, was a taxable transaction completed in 1919, and that the value of that stock so received in 1919, rather than the cost of the properties so exchanged for said stock, is the proper basis for determining the profit on the sale of the Hobbs Oil Company stock in 1920 to C. N. Haskell and associates.
In determining the gain of petitioners in the Haskell transaction, the respondent took as his basis the cost of the property which petitioners conveyed to the Hobbs Oil Company, while it is contended by petitioners that the proper basis was the fair market value of the Hobbs Oil Company stock on the date of its issue, December 15, 1919; that said stock was worth more on that day than they received for it; and that a loss was sustained rather than a gain.
We do not agree to this contention. The organization of the Hobbs Oil Company and the transfer to it of the lands and leases was merely a part of one main transaction, which was to sell certain oil lands and interests in oil lands which were specified in the contract, plus 75 per cent of the stock in the Texas Chief Oil & Gas Company, for a consideration of $2,100,000 cash and $600,000 capital stock of the Delaware Company. The fact that to perform the contract the organization of a common law trust or association was resorted to as a means ta carry through the deal, does not alter the character of the transaction. There was no intention on the part of Hobbs or his associates to effect an exchange of their oil lands for stock in the Hobbs Oil Company, but their intention was to make a sale of their lands to Haskell and the Delaware Company by which they were to receive a large part of the agreed purchase price in cash and the balance in stock of the Delaware Company. All the shares of stock of the Hobbs Oil Company were issued to Hobbs and by him immediately sent to New York for delivery to the Delaware Company to be held by it as a part of its own property. No owner of the oil lands and leases conveyed to the Hobbs Oil Company had any beneficial interest in or power of disposition over the stock, as it belonged to the Delaware Company as soon as issued. The interest of the owners of the oil lands and leases conveyed to Hobbs Oil Company was in the consideration which they were to receive under the main contract and supplements thereto. We hold that the respondent was correct in fixing, as the basis for the calculation of gain, the cost of the oil properties to petitioners. Commissioner v. Moore, 48 Fed. (2d) 526; certiorari denied, October 12, 1931; Commissioner v. Garber, 50 Fed. (2d) 588.
Just as we said in the foregoing quotation, that “ The organization of the Hobbs Oil Co. and the transfer to it of the lands and leases was merely a part of one main transaction,” to sell the leases and other property to the Delaware corporation, so do I say that in the instant case the organization of the Simms Oil Co. (Texas corporation) and the transfer to it of the oil leases were merely a part of one main transaction, which was to sell these leases to the Delaware corporation. That petitioner himself looked upon these transactions as parts of one completed transaction is disclosed by his pleadings.
*1037In bis original petition he says: “In June of that year (1919) he transferred said undeveloped leases to the Simms Oil Co., a Texas corporation, in return for which all of the stock of said Simms Oil Co. except qualifying shares were issued to petitioner. Contemporaneously petitioner transferred all of the shares of Simms Oil Co. to the Simms Petroleum Co., a Delaware Corporation.” (Italics supplied.) A similar statement is contained in the amended petition filed in September 1927.
Because I believe that there are no facts in the instant case on the point which I am here discussing sufficient to distinguish it from the facts in the Hobbs case, supra, and because I believe our holding in the Hobbs case was correct, I record my dissent from the majority opinion in the instant case.
I think the Commissioner treated the transaction correctly when he held that the leases owned by Simms were exchanged for 174,990 shares of the Simmis Petroleum Co. (Delaware corporation) and treated the intermediate transactions as but parts of the one main transaction. The measure of gain, as I have said, is the difference between the cost of these leases and the fair market value of the shares in the Delaware company which Simms received.
Matthews agrees with this dissent.