Court Opinion

ID: 9444433
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:00:55.399909+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:52.246842
License: Public Domain

POPE, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I concur in Judge BONE’S opinion as I am agreed that the case is governed by the decision in Watson v. Commissioner, 345 U.S. 544, 73 S.Ct. 848, 852, 97 L.Ed. 1232, of which the trial court did not have the benefit when he made his findings. I have but one reservation in this concurrence and that is based upon my belief that no court could reasonably say that the presence of the crop on January 3, 1944, did not add some value to the purchase price. The fact that this crop was more immature than that in the Watson case shows a difference in degree but not in kind. Its ultimate maturity is subject to more hazards but I think that, to paraphrase the language of the Supreme Court, “It is obvious that the parties to this sale did in fact attribute [some] value to the unmatured crop.” What that value was is manifestly not susceptible of exact proof; in the Watson case the Commissioner said $122,500 and the Tax Court said $40,000. Judge BONE’S opinion seems to emphasize the words “if any”. Like farmers generally, persons in the orchard business live perpetually with the chances of frost, pests and similar hazards, and know how to evaluate them. I cannot think that any one could believe that one who bought an orchard with a crop halfway to maturity would attribute no value to the crop.