Court Opinion

ID: 9447874
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:46:17.763255+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:13.116375
License: Public Domain

HASTIE, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
This decision is extraordinary in that the majority insist that a recent enactment of Congress means exactly the opposite of what the Senate and House Committee reports on the bill and such other statements as there are on the point in the legislative history say it means. In fact, both committee reports anticipate the exact case which is before us and say explicitly that expenses for meals and lodging are not deductible.
“The deduction permitted for ‘transportation primarily for and essential to medical care’ clarifies ex- • isting law in that it specifically excludes deduction of any meals and lodging while away from home receiving medical treatment. For example, if a doctor prescribes that a patient must go to Florida in order to alleviate specific chronic ailments and to escape unfavorable climatic conditions which have proven injurious to the health of the taxpayer, and the travel is prescribed for reasons other than the general improvement of a patient’s health, the cost of the patient’s transportation to Florida would be deductible but not his living expenses while there.” H. Rept. No. 1337, 83d Cong. 2d Sess. at A60; S.Rept. No. 1622, 83d Cong. 2d Sess. at 219-220.
The House report is equally as explicit at another point:
“A new definition of ‘medical expenses’ is provided which incorporates regulations under present law and also provides for the deduction ■ of transportation expenses for travel prescribed for health, but not the ordinary living expenses incurred during such a trip.” H.Rept. No. 1337, supra, at 30. See also S.Rept. No. 1622, supra, at 35.
When the proposed new tax legislation was being considered in the Senate committee, the Undersecretary of the Treasury, Marion B. Folsom, advised the committee that the new definition of medical care was intended to “permit deduction of cost of transportation necessary for health but not ordinary living expenses incurred during trip”. Hearings before Senate Finance Committee on H.R. 8300, 83d Cong. 2d Sess., part 1, p. 103. He added that this was one of the “principal [amendatory] provisions”. In these circumstances, this is not a case in which the intention of Congress, as indicated by the legislative history, is in any way doubtful or ambiguous. It is plain that Congress was repeatedly advised by its responsible committees in charge of the legislation and by the executive department responsible for assisting in the presentation and explanation of tax legislation that the new definition of medical care was intended to preclude the deduction of living expenses during necessary absences from home for medical care.
*307If this plain intention of Congress is to be ignored, it must be because what Congress actually said in the statute is clearly contrary to what it meant. I think the majority recognize that this is their difficult task. I also think that analysis of the relevant legislation clearly shows that the language of the 1954 Code carries out the indicated legislative purpose to preclude the deduction of living expenses and does not in any way contradict it.
The fundamental mistake of the majority, which persists throughout their analysis and, in my view, invalidates it, is that they wholly ignore one of the two controlling sections of the 1954 Code. Specifically, the majority do not take into account the language of Section 262 of the 1954 Code, 26 U.S.C. § 262, which replaces Section 24(a) (1) of the 1939 Code, 26 U.S.C. § 24(a) (1). Section 24(a) (1) had provided that “in computing net income no deduction shall in any ease be allowed in respect of — (1) personal, living, or family expenses, except extraordinary medical expenses deductible under Section 23 (x) * * Section 262 of the 1954 Code substituted for the old Section 24(a) (1) the following language: “Except as otherwise expressly provided in this chapter, no deduction shall be allowed for personal, living, or family expenses.” Thus, Section 262 eliminates the former special reference to extraordinary medical expenses and provides instead that no deduction of living expenses whatever shall be allowed unless “expressly provided in this chapter”. This means that, when a taxpayer asserts that living expenses during absences from home necessary for medical care are deductible under the 1954 Code, he must carry the burden imposed by Section 262 of pointing out where such living expenses are “expressly” included among the deductible items related to medical care. This cannot be done here because there simply is no such express provision.
The basic authorization of medical deductions, as it appears in Section 213(a), is stated in general terms:
“(a) Allowance of deduction.— There shall be allowed as a deduction the expenses paid during the taxable year * * * for medical care of the taxpayer * *
Obviously this language does not “expressly provide” for any deduction of living expenses. Indeed, pages of the majority opinion are devoted to a reasoned argument to justify construing the general statutory reference to “expenses * * * for medical care” as intended to include living expenses. To me such an argument only emphasizes the basic error. The very reason that elaboration is necessary is that Congress made no “express provision” for the deduction of living expenses.
Even if the decisive requirement of Section 262 were absent, I think Section 213(e) indicates, as the Tax Court has recently held, that living expenses are not deductible. Max Carasso, 1960, 34 T.C. 1139. I have already referred to the basic language of Section 213(a) which in general terms allows a deduction for “expenses paid * * * for medical care * * *» Standing alone this language could be interpreted in various ways. It might mean only the cost of medication, medical services and the like. It could be interpreted to include maintenance of the sick in hospitals, at home or elsewhere. It could include travel for medical care or travel for convalescence. The point here is simply that the language is not precise or specific as to the situations it covers. It requires interpretation. Accordingly, Congress added the interpretative Section 213(e) which reads:
“(e) Definitions. — For purposes of this section—
“(1) The term ‘medical care’ means amounts paid—
“ (A) for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, or for the purpose of affecting any structure or function of the body (including amounts paid for accident or health insurance), or
*308“(B) for transportation primarily for and essential to medical care referred to in subparagraph (A).”
This definition says nothing about living expenses. The majority characterize this omission as “a slender reed” upon which to lean. But it is those who take the position that the statute authorizes a deduction of living expenses who require affirmative support for their position.
Section 213(a) does not define expenses for medical care. Section 213(e) purports to define the term and in so doing says nothing about living expenses. What the majority have to do is to construe the reference in Section 213(e) (1) (A) to amounts paid for “diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease” as inferentially including living expenses on trips away from home which are necessitated by considerations of health. Of course it can sensibly be argued that such an inclusive interpretation should be given these words. There is precedent for that interpretation in the Tax Court’s treatment of the general language of the 1939 Code. L. Keever Stringham, 1949, 12 T.C. 580, affirmed per curiam Stringham v. C. I. R., 6 Cir., 1950, 183 F.2d 579. But, whether one agrees with that interpretation or not,1 it is not obvious on the face of Section 213 of the 1954 Code. To the contrary, the separate specific provision of Section 213(e) (1) (B) allowing a deduction of transportation expenses essential to medical care suggests that the immediately preceding language of Section 213(e) (1) (A) is intended to include only those things which we conventionally describe as medical bills.
Since the face of the statute does not make either of the opposing constructions unreasonable, this is a case in which resort to legislative history is particularly appropriate. It has already been pointed out that the legislative history shows plainly that Congress did not intend to allow a deduction for living expenses.
In summary, I find the conclusion of the majority erroneous for two distinct reasons. First, Section 262 precludes the deduction of living expenses in the absence of any express provision therefor. There is no mention of living expenses in the section which, in the view of the majority, permits such a deduction. Second, the conclusion of the majority is reached by giving Section 213(a) a meaning that is not made obvious by a mere reading of that subsection and its definitional supplement, Section 213(e). Therefore, it is proper to resort to legislative history which plainly shows that Congress intended that these provisions should preclude the deduction of living expenses. For these reasons, I think the decision of the Tax Court should be reversed and the deficiency determined without any deduction of living expenses.

. In the Stringham ease itself three judges of the Tax Court dissented, believing that the general language of the 1939 Code did not cover living expenses. And the majority opinion in that case recognized tbat “this section is susceptible to a variety of conflicting interpretations” and necessitates an inquiry into legislative history and congressional intent. 12 T.C. at page 583.