Court Opinion

ID: 9473915
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:43:29.232862+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:48.922083
License: Public Domain

GARTH, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
Although I concur in the majority’s ultimate holding that enforcement of the IRS summonses currently before us would not be an abuse of the court’s process since the IRS agents acted in good faith reliance on a facially valid rule 6(e) order, I cannot agree that the appeal in United States v. Gluck at No. 84-5282 presents a live case or controversy. During the pendency of this appeal, full compliance was had with the summonses at issue in the Gluck mat*759ter.1 Because the Glucks’ appeal did no more than challenge the enforceability of the summonses, compliance by the banks, each of which furnished the records sought by the summonses, has ended the particular controversy that was the subject of that appeal. Indeed, the banks’ compliance has necessarily deprived this court of the ability to grant any relief which could possibly affect the legal rights of either party to seek or to resist enforcement of the summonses. The majority’s opinion in the Gluck case can thus be no more than purely advisory.
Unlike the majority, I do not believe we should rely upon the completely speculative possibility that future criminal or civil proceedings may be instituted against the Glucks to endow their present appeal with a vitality it no longer possesses. Should the government initiate any subsequent proceedings against the Glucks, the Glucks may at that time move to suppress the use of any information which was obtained by the government as a result of compliance with the summonses. See, e.g., G.M. Leasing Corp. v. United States, 429 U.S. 338, 359, 97 S.Ct. 619, 632, 50 L.Ed.2d 530 (1977); Donaldson v. United States, 400 U.S. 517, 531, 81 S.Ct. 534, 542, 27 L.Ed.2d 580 (1971). Suppression, however, is not a remedy which is called for at this time or which we should fashion as an incident to a petition to quash. I would therefore dismiss the appeal in No. 84-5282 as moot.
I.
The prior case law in this circuit contains seemingly conflicting authority as to whether compliance with a summons or subpoena moots an appeal challenging its enforcement. Compare Vesco v. Securities and Exchange Commission, 462 F.2d 1350 (3d Cir.1972) with United States v. Wattman, 525 F.2d 371 (3d Cir.1975) and United States v. Friedman, 532 F.2d 928 (3d Cir.1976). In Vesco, the court held that full compliance with an SEC subpoena during the pendency of the appeal “obviated the ‘case or controversy’ originally surrounding the subpoena.” 462 F.2d at 1351. The Vesco court accordingly dismissed the appeal as moot.
In the later cases of Waltman, supra, and Friedman, supra, however, separate panels of this court concluded that compliance with an IRS summons during the pendency of an appeal which challenged the particular summons’ validity did not moot the appeal. Waltman involved a challenge to the enforcement of an IRS summons seeking production of an expense diary claimed by the taxpayer to be a personal record rather than a corporate record within the meaning of the summons. Friedman challenged the propriety of the government’s purpose in issuing summonses to obtain certain individual and corporate records. Although Waltman and Friedman thus differed in the precise issues they presented, each court reasoned that compliance did not moot the respective appeals, since suppression of the involved records might result should the taxpayers prevail in their claims.
Significantly, neither the Waltman nor the Friedman court discusses the earlier and contrary Vesco holding. The majority here attempts to distinguish Vesco by emphasizing that the Vesco plaintiffs sought to resist production of subpoenaed documents on the grounds that disclosure would subject them to criminal penalties under Swiss law. The majority reasons that because an American court lacked power to direct the actions of Swiss authorities, compliance with the subpoena necessarily rendered the appeal moot. See Maj. op. at 754. In the majority’s view, the crucial distinguishing factor is that no post-disclosure remedy fashioned by the Vesco court could have had extraterritorial effect.
This attempt to distinguish Vesco from Waltman and Friedman, while ingenious, is flawed. The Vesco court did not rely *760upon the fact that the plaintiffs faced potential criminal liability in a foreign jurisdiction as determinative of the mootness issue. Instead, the Vesco court, noting that the complaint sought to enjoin compliance with a particular subpoena, concluded that compliance inevitably ended any controversy concerning that subpoena’s ultimate enforcement. In effect, compliance itself had settled the very issue raised by the Vesco plaintiffs’ complaint, i.e., whether the plaintiffs had to comply with the subpoena. The logic of the Vesco court would thus compel a conclusion that compliance mooted the appeal, no matter whether the plaintiffs faced potential foreign or domestic criminal proceedings.
I therefore cannot subscribe to the majority’s effort to distinguish Vesco. To the extent that any conflict exists between Vesco and Waltman and Friedman, Vesco, as the earlier case, must control our decision. See O. Hommel Co. v. Ferro Corp., 659 F.2d 340, 354 (3d Cir.1981). Neither can I agree with the majority’s statement that in the present case, unlike Vesco, “at issue is not only the act of turning the documents over to the government but also the use of information obtained from these documents.” Maj. op. at 754. As the majority itself notes, the Glucks’ central argument before us has been that the alleged breach of grand jury secrecy by IRS agents should bar the IRS from receiving the court’s aid in acquiring information by use of a summons. Indeed, a review of the Glucks’ amended petition to quash discloses that their sole challenge is to the enforceability of the summonses. No question of suppression has been properly raised before this court. Nor can such a question be raised at this stage. See Donaldson, 400 U.S. at 531, 81 S.Ct. at 542 (“to the extent [a taxpayer] may claim an abuse of process, [he] may always assert ... that claim in due course at its proper place in any subsequent trial”) In the absence of some further civil or criminal proceedings against the Glucks, the question of suppression remains completely speculative.
Other courts of appeals, which have considered the effect of compliance with an IRS summons during the pendency of an appeal, have uniformly held that compliance moots the appeal. See United States v. Kis, 658 F.2d 526, 532-35 (7th Cir.1981) (compliance with IRS summons moots appeal challenging its enforceability since court is unable to grant any relief and suppression should not be considered until government initiates some further proceedings in which use of evidence is sought); United States v. Arthur Andersen & Co., 623 F.2d 720 (1st Cir.1980) (compliance moots appeal; “in the absence of some compelling circumstances that militate in favor of our deciding an otherwise moot case, the “capable of repetition yet evading review” exception is not available to a litigant aggrieved by a summons or subpoena who could have avoided mootness by refusing to comply”); United States v. Deak-Perera Banking Corp., 610 F.2d 89 (2d Cir.1979) (same); Barney v. United States, 568 F.2d 116 (8th Cir.1978) (same); Kurshan v. Riley, 484 F.2d 952 (4th Cir.1973) (same); United States v. Lyons, 442 F.2d 1144 (1st Cir.1971) (mere possibility of future criminal proceedings does not in itself justify appellate consideration of the propriety of the summons when compliance has mooted appeal); Lawhon v. United States, 390 F.2d 663 (5th Cir.1968) (same). These courts have generally recognized that once compliance has mooted an appeal, to address the question of suppression of evidence in the absence of some actual criminal or civil proceeding is to do no more than deliver an advisory opinion.2 Unlike *761the majority, I believe we should refrain from reaching the merits of the Glucks’ appeal.
II.
In light of our prior decision in Vesco and in light of the overwhelming weight of precedent in other courts of appeals, I would therefore hold that compliance with the summonses at issue has mooted the appeal in United States v. Gluck, No. 84-5282. The particular controversy that formed the subject of the Glucks’ appeal— the enforceability of the summonses — has ceased to exist. Nor can the mere possibility that some future proceeding may be instituted against the Glucks provide a live case or controversy capable of present resolution. I therefore respectfully dissent from that portion of the majority’s opinion which holds the Gluck appeal is not moot.
III.
One further observation is necessary to explain my dissenting opinion, even though the ultimate outcome of the Gluck appeal remains unchanged. I have felt compelled to write at some length about the mootness issue in the Gluck appeal for two reasons. First, the question of mootness goes directly to our jurisdiction to entertain the appeal. As a court of limited jurisdiction, whose ability to decide questions of law is constitutionally defined by the case or controversy requirement of Article III, we are not empowered to decide abstract or purely hypothetical questions. In the absence of a concrete and continuing case or controversy, we lack jurisdiction and hence power to decide questions of law which can have no effect on the particular litigants before the court.
Second, although I believe the mootness of the Gluck appeal is manifest, the jurisprudence of this Circuit contains ostensibly conflicting authority as to whether compliance with an IRS summons moots an appeal challenging enforcement of that summons. As noted, the decision in Vesco requires that we dismiss the Gluck appeal as moot. The later cases of Waltman and Friedman, however, indicate a contrary result. However, neither Waltman nor Friedman discusses or distinguishes Vesco. They thus invite the particular difficulty encountered in the present appeal.
The question whether compliance with a summons moots an appeal challenging its enforceability is hardly esoteric. Rather, it is one that has arisen repeatedly in the past and that will undoubtedly arise in the future. The district courts in this Circuit should not be required to choose between purportedly conflicting decisions reached by various panels of this court. Of course, as I have earlier noted, to the extent that any conflict exists between Vesco and the later cases, precedent and our Internal Operating Procedures3 dictate that Vesco, as the earlier case, must control. See O. Hommel, 659 F.2d at 354. If, however, the full court feels that a widening conflict exists between Vesco and the developing law of this Circuit or that the rule of Vesco is not supportable and should be overturned, I would urge that the question, whether compliance engenders mootness, be considered by the court en banc. I believe that the integrity of our jurisprudence and the discharge of our function in guiding and informing the district courts require no less. Until an en banc hearing is ordered. Vesco must govern any decision on this issue.

. Three separate IRS summonses are challenged in this appeal. In April 1983, two summonses, seeking various financial records of the Glucks, were issued to the Franklin State Bank. See app. at 3, 7. An additional summons was issued to the First National State Bank — Edison. See app. at 11. During the pendency of this appeal, each bank complied with the summonses.

. The majority suggests that a distinction may be drawn between those cases in which a summons is issued directly to the taxpayer and those in which a summons is issued to a third party, such as a bank or other financial institution. See Maj. op. at 754, n. 3. Specifically, the majority argues that both the Kis and Andersen courts would establish a more lenient mootness standard when compliance results from the actions of a third party. Presumably, the rationale for such a relaxed standard is that a disinterested third party should not be required to resist a summons and risk contempt in order to keep a controversy live.
However, because compliance may result from the actions of a third party does nothing to *761ensure that future proceedings, in which the introduction of information obtained by means of a challenged summons is sought, will be initiated. Whether the taxpayer himself or some third party complies is thus ultimately irrelevant to the mootness issue. This is necessarily so, since it is the very act of compliance, rather than the individual or institution which complies, that ends the controversy surrounding the enforceability of any particular summons. Until some subsequent proceeding is commenced, no concrete controversy demanding decision exists.

. See United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Internal Operating Procedures, Ch. VIII, § C (1983).