Court Opinion

ID: 9452687
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:48:37.867653+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:19.117683
License: Public Domain

SCHNACKENBERG, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I believe the facts show that Le Vant in 1957 received from Edison employment and an option to buy for $50,000, 20 percent of the S. M. Edison Chemical Company. For his services as an employee Le Vant was to receive a salary and a percentage of the profits, and, when he exercised the option, he was obligated to pay the $50,000 to Edison. Edison’s own testimony reveals that Le Vant received an option and that any dispute between himself and Le Vant was not over the option, but rather over the division of the profits.
Moreover, the option was assignable, as the testimony of Edison indicates, and there was evidence of the ascertainable fair market value of the option when it was granted.
I would hold that the income realized by Le Vant in 1960, by receipt of the Colgate shares, reduced by the cost of his option, was taxable only as a long-term capital gain.