Court Opinion

ID: 9693832
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 17:02:42.141067+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:50.941480
License: Public Domain

WHITAKER, Judge
(dissenting).
It seems to me that plaintiffs’ business was the management of the real property left plaintiff Francis S. Appleby and his family by his father. Prudent management of this business — that is to say, prudent “operation” of the business — required the sale of certain parcels of this real estate. The majority opinion admits that the proceeds of the sale of this property were retained in the business and used in its operation. From the sale, necessitated by prudent operation, a loss was sustained. I do not think it is reasonable to say that this loss was “not attributable to the operation of a trade or business regularly carried on by the taxpayer.”
The fact that the taxpayer’s business was not one in which there were sharp fluctuations in income seems to me to make no difference. The loss permitted by section 23 (s) of the Code was not restricted to the operation of a business in which there were sharp fluctuations in income. The deduction of such a loss was permitted if it was incurred in the operation of any business regularly carried on by the taxpayer.
I must respectfully dissent.