Court Opinion

ID: 9483268
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:15:39.109468+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:31.378457
License: Public Domain

JOHNSON, Senior Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur with the majority’s discussion of the variance doctrine and with the majority’s ultimate conclusion that the variance doctrine precludes Charter from directly raising the issue of a refund based on a change in the basis for the “marketing assets.” See Angelus Milling Co. v. Commissioner, 325 U.S. 293, 299, 65 S.Ct. 1162, 1165, 89 L.Ed. 1619 (1945); Alabama ByProducts Corp. v. Patterson, 258 F.2d 892, 900 (5th Cir.1958), cert. denied, 358 U.S. 930, 79 S.Ct. 318, 3 L.Ed.2d 303 (1959); Mallette Bros. Constr. Co. v. United States, 695 F.2d 145,155-56 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 935, 104 S.Ct. 341, 78 L.Ed.2d 309 (1983); cf. Burrell v. Fahs, 232 F.2d 163, 166 (5th Cir.1956). Simply put, the IRS is not required to peruse the facts set forth in refund claims in order to provide refund claimants with potentially applicable, but unraised, factual or legal bases for a refund.
However, I dissent from the majority’s conclusion that Charter may obtain indirectly what it may not obtain directly. See Union Pacific R.R. Co. v. United States, 182 Ct.Cl. 103, 389 F.2d 437, 447 (1968); see also Lewis v. Reynolds, 284 U.S. 281, 283, 52 S.Ct. 145, 146, 76 L.Ed. 293 (1932); Rev. Rui. 81-87, 1981-1 C.B. 580. I would hold that the invited error rule bars Charter from raising its “offsetting the government’s offset” claim on appeal. See Thunderbird, Ltd. v. First Fed. Sav. & Loan Assoc., 908 F.2d 787, 794 (11th Cir.1990); Woods v. Allied Concord Fin. Corp., 373 F.2d 733, 734 (5th Cir.1967); United States *1582v. Wurtsbaugh, 140 F.2d 534, 536-38 (5th Cir.1944); see also Westerman v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 577 F.2d 873, 883 (5th Cir.1978).
It is a “cardinal rule” of appellate procedure “that a party may not challenge as error a ruling or other trial proceeding invited by that party.” Crockett v. Uniroyal, Inc., 772 F.2d 1524, 1530 n. 4 (11th Cir.1985). Charter jointly stipulated to both the amount of the refund ordered by the district court in its July 29, 1991 final judgment and to the calculations used to arrive at that final amount. Charter did not raise the issue of offsetting the government’s offset in its joint submission to the district court. “Having induced the court to rely on a particular erroneous proposition of law or fact, a party in the normal case may not at a later stage of the case use the error to set aside the immediate consequences of the error.” Harris v. Roadway Express, Inc., 923 F.2d 59, 64 (6th Cir.1991). To the extent the district court erred in entering judgment on the figures submitted by Charter, Charter invited any such error. See Thunderbird, Ltd., 908 F.2d at 794; Woods, 373 F.2d at 734; Wurtsbaugh, 140 F.2d at 536-38.
To be sure, Charter did raise the offsetting the offset issue prior to the district court’s order of July 23, 1990, which required the parties to submit figures calculating the final refund amount, if any, that Charter was entitled to receive. As the majority explains, the district court, for whatever reasons, failed to address the specific issue of offsetting the government’s offset in its July 23, 1990 order. In light of this failure, the most prudent course of action for Charter would have been to file a Rule 59(e) motion requesting the district court to amend its order by specifically addressing this issue. See American Home Assurance Co. v. Glenn Estess & Assoc., Inc., 763 F.2d 1237, 1238-39 (11th Cir.1985); Fed.R.Civ.P. 59(e). However, Charter did not file such a motion.1
Had the July 23, 1990 order been the district court's last action in this case, I would agree with the majority that the lower court’s judgment should be vacated and remanded. However, the July 23, 1990 order did not result in the immediate entry of final judgment. The district court charged the parties with submitting both calculations showing the proper amount of Charter’s refund and the final amount of any refund due Charter. Thus, Charter had a clear opportunity to raise the issue of offsetting the offset prior to the entry of final judgment. Rather than submit alternate figures or in any other way apprise the district court of the perceived error in its July 23, 1990 order, Charter instead chose to submit erroneous figures to the district court, which it represented to the district court as accurately reflecting the amount of the refund without qualification. Although provided with a clear chance to apprise the district court of its concerns regarding the offsetting the offset issue, Charter instead chose to submit figures that it considered at best incomplete and at worst patently incorrect.2 Moreover, the parties spent an entire year negotiating over the figures to be submitted to the district court. During this period, Charter did nothing whatsoever to put the district court on notice of the offsetting the offset issue.
In response, Charter claims that it failed to raise the issue of offsetting the offset *1583either during the twelve months between the July 23, 1990 order and the July 29, 1991 final judgment or in the joint submission calculating the refund because it believed the district court had rejected the offsetting the offset theory. In point of fact, the district court had said nothing regarding this theory. Charter’s proffered excuse for agreeing to the jointly submitted figures is grossly inadequate given the facts of this case and should be rejected.
For the foregoing reasons, I dissent.

. I realize, of course, that because Charter raised the issue of offsetting the offset prior to the district court’s issuance of its July 23, 1990 order, a Rule 59(e) motion was not mandatory in order for Charter to preserve this issue for appeal. Cf. American Home, 763 F.2d at 1238-39. My point is not that Charter was required to file a Rule 59(e) motion, but rather that Charter should have filed such a motion. I also note that the invited error problem presents a question entirely independent of the question as to whether a Rule 59(e) motion was mandatory. he., although Charter properly raised the offsetting the offset issue prior to the July 23, 1990 order, Charter’s subsequent invited error creates an independent bar to consideration of the issue on appeal.

. Unlike the majority, see supra, at 1580-81,1 do not believe that the obligation to apprise the district court of its omission fell on the appellee. Cf. Fryman v. Federal Crop Ins. Corp., 936 F.2d 244, 251 (6th Cir.1991).