Howard

In this case, which is here on petition to review a decision of the Tax Court, the chief question is whether legal expenses incurred by the petitioner in defense of an action brought by his divorced wife to collect money awarded her in a divorce action are deductible from gross income. The Tax Court held that they are not.

Petitioner and Anita Z. Howard were married in 1925. In 1938 they executed a property settlement agreement providing, iii part, that petitioner would pay to Anita during her natural life, or until she remarried, a monthly sum of $1,250, commencing August 1, 1938. In November of that year Anita was granted a final divorce by a Nevada court. The decree ratified and adopted the property settlement agreement and ordered that the covenants therein contained should he performed.

Petitioner made the monthly payments as specified in the agreement from August, 1938, through the year 1941, and then discontinued them. Thereupon Anita commenced an action in a California court to recover the monthly payments alleged to be due her under the terms of the settlement, and praying that the Nevada decree he established as a foreign judgment and enforced by order of the court.…