Court Opinion

ID: 9828685
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 18:37:26.010491+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:42:51.833821
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
This case was reversed' and remanded because of the error of the trial court as we judged the matter, in refusing to permit appellants to testify that Mr. Allen, chairman of the board of attorneys, acting under the Solicitor of the Internal Revenue Department, announced in open session of the board that its decision was adverse to appellants. The evidence was excluded on objection by appellees that there was better evidence as to the decision of the board. We held that the burden rested on appellees to show there was in existence higher evidence, and of what it consisted, and, having failed to discharge this burden, the court erred in excluding the evidence.
In their motion for rehearing appellees insist that the Treasury Department, in article 1006 of Regulations 62, relating to income tax, furnishes the procedure for such a hearing, and provides that the taxpayer shall receive notice of the decision by registered mail; that this is the only means provided by law for notice to the taxpayer, is the best evidence of the fact, and that this court must take judicial notice of the regulation. It is apparent that appellees have confused the provisions of article 1006 with those of article 1032 of the Regulations. Article 1006 .provides for a hearing before the Income Tax Unit, where it is proposed, after due notice to the taxpayer, to assess against him an *894additional tax. In such case the regulations provide that, the taxpayer shall be notified of the decision of the unit by registered mail. The hearing involved here, however, was under article 1032, to determine whether a tax and penalty illegally and erroneously assessed should be abated. The claim for abatement provided for in article 1032 is to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, and not to the Income Tax Unit, and there is no provision for notice to the taxpayer of the decision.
It is further contended that the evidence was properly excluded as hearsay. We do not agree to this contention. The very fact in controversy was whether the board of attorneys before whom the hearing was conducted announced in open session, through their chairman, that the decision of the matter was adverse to appellants. The witnesses offered to testify to this fact as having taken place in their presence and within their hearing. We are therefore of the opinion that the evidence was not hearsay but original. Besides this, the evidence was not objected to on the ground that it was hearsay, as is apparent from an inspection of the bill of exception taken to the action of the court below.
After a careful consideration of the motion for rehearing, we find no reason- to disturb the decision heretofore rendered; therefore the motion is overruled.