Court Opinion

ID: 9444815
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:12:59.631617+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:01.109351
License: Public Domain

*371LINDLEY, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
In United States v. Security Trust & Savings Bank, Executor, 340 U.S. 47, 71 S.Ct. 111, 113, 95 L.Ed. 53, the Supreme Court was concerned with the question of when a lien attached under an attachment writ under the California code. That statute provided that: “The lien of the attachment on real property attaches and becomes effective upon the recording of a copy of the writ, * * * and a notice that it is attached with the county recorder of the county wherein said real property is situate * * *. The attachment * * * shall be a lien upon all real property attached for a period of three years after the date of levy unless sooner released or discharged * * West’s Ann.Code Civ. Proc. § 542a. The Court, after commenting that a state court’s classification of a lien as specific and perfected, though entitled to weight, when determining priority of federal tax liens, “is subject to reexamination by this Court”, said, 340 U.S. at page 50, 71 S.Ct. at page 113: “The attachment lien gives the attachment creditor no right to proceed against the property unless he gets a judgment *372within three years or within such extension as the statute provides. Numerous contingencies might arise that would prevent the attachment lien from ever becoming perfected by a judgment awarded and recorded. Thus the attachment lien is contingent or inchoate — ■ merely a lis pendens notice that a right to perfect a lien exists.” It added: “Nor can the doctrine of relation back — which by process of judicial reasoning merges the-attachment lien in the judgment and relates the judgment lien back to the date of attachment — operate to destroy the realities of the situation. When the tax liens of the United States were recorded, Morrison did not have a judgment lien. He had a mere ‘caveat of a more perfect lien to. come.’ People of the State of New York v. Maclay, 288 U.S. 290, 294, 53 S.Ct. 323, 324, 77 L. Ed. 754.” I think this case can not be distinguished from the present one. In California the lien of the attachment on real property “attaches and becomes effective” upon the recording of the writ. In Illinois the méeharíicV claim of lien likewise becomes- effective upon recording it. The reasoning of the Security case, it seems to me, is directly applicable to the present case.

*371

*372In United States v. Acri, 348 U.S. 211, 75 S.Ct. 239, 241, an attachment writ had issued in Ohio. The court of that state treated the writ as a perfected lien at the time it was filed, f This, the Supreme Court said, made the issue identical with that of the Security Trust case. “The relative priority of the lien of the United States for unpaid taxes is, as we said in United States v. Waddill Co., 323 U.S. 353, 356, 357, 65 S.Ct. 304, 306, 89 L.Ed. 294; People of State of Illinois ex rel. Gordon v. Campbell, 329 U.S. 362, 371, 67 S.Ct. 340, 345, 91 L.Ed. 348; United States v. Security Trust & Sav. Bank Co., 340 U.S. 47, 49, 71 S.Ct. 111, 112, 95 L.Ed. 53, always a federal question to be determined finally by the federal courts. The state’s characterization of its liens, while good'for. al,l .state’.purposes, does not necessarily bind this Court. United States v. Waddill Co., 323 U.S. 353, at page 357, 65 S.Ct. 304, at page 306, 89 L.Ed. 294; United States v. Gilbert Associates, 345 U.S. 361, 73 S.Ct. 701, 97 L. Ed. 1071.” It continued: “Therefore, the fact that the Ohio courts had designated an attachment lien ‘an execution in advance,’ Rempe & Son v. Ravens, 68 Ohio St. 113, 67 N.E. 282, 286, and treated it as a perfected lien at the time of attachment, does not bind this Court. We must look at the circumstances as we did in the Waddill case, where the Virginia court had held a landlord’s lien was fixed, specific, and not inchoate.” It concluded: “In argument it was pointed out that the statute of California involved in the Security Trust case was different because California courts had held an attachment lien to be inchoate and a mere notice of a more perfect lien to come, while Ohio courts had held it to be an execution in advance and a lien perfected as of the time of attachment. This distinction is immaterial for purposes of federal law. This case is not to be distinguished from United States v. Security Trust & Sav. Bank Co., 340 U.S. 47, 71 S.Ct. 111, 95 L.Ed. 53, and the judgment is Reversed.” 348 U.S. at pages 213, 214, 75 S.Ct. at pages 241, 242.
In United States v. Liverpool & London Ins. Co., 348 U.S. 215, 75 S.Ct. 247, the Court was concerned with the question of relative priority of a garnishment lien, a writ for which had been issued before the Government gave notice of its lien for taxes. The district court held the lien of the garnisher superior to that of the United States. The Court of Appeals affirmed, 5 Cir., 209 F.2d 684. On certiorari, the Supreme Court held that the question of priorities was identical with that in United States v. Acri, and United States v. Security Trust & Sav. Bank Company, and held the tax lien superior to the garnishment.
In United States v. Scovil, 348 U.S. 218, 75 S.Ct. 244, a landlord had levied a distress lien under South Carolina law before a federal tax lien had attached. *373The claim was not reduced to judgment until after notice of the federal lien. The Court held that the Government must prevail because of its liens under Section 3670 of the Internal Revenue Code, saying, 348 U.S. at page 220, 75 S. Ct. at page 246: “The landlord had a lien other than a mortgage, pledge or judgment lien. As to all other liens, such as the distress lien in the instant case, § 3672 of the Internal Revenue Code, 26 U.S.C.A. § 3672, affords no protection. United States v. Security Trust & Sav. Bank Co., 340 U.S. 47, 51, 71 S.Ct. 111, 113, 95 L.Ed. 53 (concurring opinion). Cf. United States v. Gilbert Associates, Inc., 345 U.S. 361, 362-365, 73 S.Ct. 701, 702, 703, 704, 97 L.Ed. 1071. * * * such a lien was only a caveat of a more perfect lien to come, as we have so often held in other cases. United States v. Security Trust & Sav. Bank Co., supra; United States v. Gilbert Associates, Inc., supra; United States v. Waddill Co., supra, 323 U.S. at pages 357-359, 65 S.Ct. 304, 306, 307; People of State of New York v. Maclay, 288 U.S. 290, 53 S.Ct. 323, 77 L.Ed. 754.”
In United States v. City of New Britain, 347 U.S. 81, 74 S.Ct. 367, 98 L.Ed. 520, the question arose as to whether the Government should prevail over certain tax and water service liens of the city. As to the tax liens, the Connecticut statute provided that real estate taxes “shall take precedence over all transfers and encumbrances.” The Court held that, though the Supreme Court of Errors’ holding that the city’s lien was specific and perfected was not conclusive against ¿he federal government, it accepted the holding as to the city’s liens, inasmuch as they attached to specific pieces of real property for the taxes assessed. The Court said 347 U.S. at page 84, 74 S.Ct. at page 369: “The liens may also be perfected in the sense that there is nothing more to be done to have a choate lien — ”. The Court held that the priority of each statutory lien contested was dependent upon the time when it attached to the property in question and became choate. Citing its earlier opinion in United States v. Security Trust & Sav. Bank Co., it again defined inchoate liens which may become certain as to amount, identity of the lienor, or the property subject thereto only at some subsequent time. The court was dealing with two classes of State and City claims, including real estate tax liens and water-rent liens, and in the end remanded the cause, saying, 347 U.S. at page 88, 74 S.Ct. at page 372: “Under the circumstances, we vacate the judgment of the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut and remand the case to that court to have determined the order of priority of the various liens asserted, in accordance with this opinion.” The latest case in the Supreme Court is United States v. Colotta, 350 U.S. 808, 76 S.Ct. 82, reversing United States v. Colotta, 79 So.2d 474, where the Supreme Court of Mississippi had declared a mechanic’s lien superior to the federal tax lien. Inasmuch as the notice of a mechanic’s lien did not fulfill the requirements necessary to give it priority over the lien of the federal tax fixed by People of State of Illinois ex rel. Gordon v. Campbell, 329 U.S. 362, 363, 371, 375, 67 S.Ct. 340, 91 L.Ed. 348, I think the government should prevail.
The lis pendens argument should fail also, I think, for the reason that it is merely an attempt, under a different name, to assert priority of ah unperfected lien. See United States v. Security Trust & Savings Bank, 340 U.S. 47, 71 S.Ct. 111, 95 L.Ed. 53.
I would reverse the judgment.