Court Opinion

ID: 9618915
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:19:18.055418+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:35:26.710870
License: Public Domain

MADDEN, Judge
(dissenting).
The court reluctantly decides that the petition does not state a claim over which the court has jurisdiction. I respectfully disagree with the decision which the court feels compelled to make.
A chose in action, such as the claim for rent which the plaintiff had against its sublessees is, of course, property, for all purposes, and is property within the meaning of the Constitution. 'If the1 Government sees fit to take choses in action, e. g. shares of stock owned by an alien, for a public purpose, it must give just compensation unless under some valid rule of law it has the right to forfeit the property.
It is hard to imagine a more public purpose for the taking of property than the purpose of collecting the Government’s taxes. The plaintiff’s choses in action were taken for that purpose. We may assume, contrary to the assertion in the plaintiff’s petition, that the plaintiff was a transferee of a taxpayer, and was liable for the taxes. Upon that assumption, the taking was lawful, and if the chose in action had been reduced to possession by the Government, and applied to the payment of the taxes, the plaintiff would have had no cause to complain.
If the Government needs a building for the duration of a war, or an army training period, and takes possession of it, and the building is unroofed by a storm, and the Government allows the building to be destroyed by continued exposure to the weather, the owner is entitled to just compensation. The just compensation would not be limited to the value of the use of the building for the temporary period. It would include the harm done to the building by reason of the Government’s possession, even though the taking of possession was entirely lawful.
In the instant case, on the assumption that the plaintiff was, as transferee, liable for the tax, the taking, i. e., the levy on the chose in action was lawful. But the result of the taking was the destruction of the value of the chose in action taken. Instead of the Government getting; its taxes, and the plaintiff getting its taxes paid, the property was allowed to go to waste, with no benefit to either.
When property has been taken by the Government and the owner has been excluded from possession and management of it, I think the Government becomes responsible for the reasonably prudent care and management of the property. To the extent that that management results in a benefit to the owner, as by getting his taxes paid, or results in no loss to the owner, as when the property is restored to him undamaged, he has of course no claim for compensation for harm done to the property while in the Government’s possession.
If a tax collector lawfully seizes negotiable corporate bearer bonds of a taxpayer and carelessly allows them to be stolen and they come into the hands of a bona fide purchaser, the Government, does not get its taxes. Surely the taxpayer, whose property has been destroyed while under the control of the Government, is entitled to just compensation.
The Government urges that the destruction of the plaintiff’s property was a tort, and that, therefore this court has-no original jurisdiction to redress the wrong. The fact that a taking of property, or of an interest in it, is a tort* *766does not prevent it from being a taking within the meaning of the Constitution. United States v. Causby, 328 U.S. 256, 66 S.Ct. 1062, 90 L.Ed. 1206; Foster v. United States, 120 Ct.Cl. 93, 98 F.Supp. 349. It would seem to follow that tortious mistreatment of property, even after a lawful taking of the temporary custody of it, would entitle the owner to compensation.
I have not considered the case on the basis of the plaintiff’s allegation that it was not, in fact, a transferee of the person who owed the tax and was not, therefore liable for the tax. I have the impression that the plaintiff’s case would, in that posture, be stronger, but I would not decide that question at this stage of the proceeding.
I would deny the defendant’s motion to dismiss the petition.
JONES, Chief Judge, joins in the foregoing dissenting opinion.