Court Opinion

ID: 9419705
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:51:08.378089+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:20.048970
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Rutledge,
dissenting.
I am unable to find in the applicable statutes the clear expression of Congressional intent which I think is required to extend the tax lien to after-acquired property. Under § 3670 the lien is imposed as to taxpayers delinquent after demand “upon all property and rights to property, whether real or personal, belonging to such person.” By § 3671 the lien arises, unless another date is specifically fixed by law, “at the time the assessment list was received by the collector” and continues “until the liability for such amount is satisfied or becomes unenforceable by reason of lapse of time.” Nothing in these sections gives any indication that Congress intended the lien to reach after-acquired property. The language used, whether in § 3670 or in § 3671, is fully satisfied if the lien is held to attach to property belonging to the taxpayer as of the time the lien arises.1 Had Congress intended to reach not only *270every description of property then owned by the taxpayer, but also every species which might later come into his hands, clearer words than “all property” and “belonging to” were readily available to express this purpose. The harshness of the consequences, not only for the taxpayer but for others dealing with him, which this case dramatically exemplifies, gives reason beyond the ambiguity of the language used for thinking there was no such intent.
Nor is such an intent supplied by use of the present tense of the verb “has” in the final clause of § 3678 (a).2 That section merely provides for the manner in which the lien defined by §§ 3670 and 3671 shall be enforced. Section 3678 (a), in my opinion, was not intended to add to the scope of the lien or extend its definition beyond the limits defined by those sections. If the lien was designed to reach after-acquired property, the alternative method specified in § 3678 (a) for reaching the property then owned by the debtor would seem to be redundant.
1 find nothing in the legislative history which discloses any intention, more clearly than the words of the statute themselves, to include after-acquired property within the coverage of the lien. In the absence of clearer statutory foundation, the comparatively recent administrative con*271struction cannot supply the required Congressional intent; and the scanty evidence of established and accepted practice is neither so wholly consistent nor so convincing as to furnish this necessary element.
Accordingly I would reverse the judgment and remand the cause to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the consideration and disposition of the issues presented to but not determined by it in view of its disposition upon the matters now determined here.
Mr. Justice Frankfurter and Mr. Justice Douglas join in this opinion.

 Although by §3671 the lien “arises” as of the time the assessment list is received by the collector, it relates back to the time of notice and demand, § 3670, as against the taxpayer, though by virtue *270of § 3672 (a) it is not valid as against any mortgagee, pledgee, purchaser, or judgment creditor “until notice thereof has been filed by the collector” as provided.

 “Sec. 3678. Civil Action to Enforce Lien on Property.
“(a) Filing. — In any case where there has been a refusal or neglect to pay any tax, and it has become necessary to seize and sell property and rights to property, whether real or personal, to satisfy the same, whether distraint proceedings have been commenced or not, the Attorney General at the request of the Commissioner may direct a civil action to be filed, in a district court of the United States, to enforce the lien of the United States for tax upon any property and rights to property, whether real or personal, or to subject any such property and rights to property owned by the delinquent, or in which he has any right, title, or interest, to the payment of such tax.” (Emphasis added.)