Court Opinion

ID: 9471729
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:39:49.167718+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:33.151342
License: Public Domain

FRIENDLY, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur in so much of Judge Meskill’s opinion as deals with the life insurance premiums. With respect to the college expenses, I concur in the result. The language of the separation stipulation makes it plain that the college expenses were to be “in addition to” the $33,500 annual payments for alimony and child support, all of which, because of failure to meet the test of § 71(b) as construed in C.I.R. v. Lester, 366 U.S. 299, 81 S.Ct. 1343, 6 L.Ed.2d 306 (1961), with respect to child support, payments, were includible in the wife’s income under § 71(a). It would run counter to the clear intention of the parties to rule that the college expenses were likewise so includible. Since they are thus not includible in the wife’s income, § 215(a) prohibits their deduction by the husband. Beyond this, if the college expenses were child support payments, they would meet the Lester test and would not be includible in the wife’s income on that account and thus again not deductible by the husband. I would say no more.