Bessie Lasky and Jesse L. Lasky v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

Lasky and his wife seek to petition this court for review of decisions of the Tax Court, “an independent agency in the Executive Branch of the Government”. That agency held that over $800,000.00 received by Lasky in connection with the motion picture “Ser geant York” was ordinary income rather than capital gain, and consequently that Lasky and his wife each owe'tax deficiencies of over $224,500.00.

The Commissioner challenges the jurisdiction of this Court of Appeals to consider the merits of the claimed right of review and moved to dismiss the petitions, contending that they were not filed within' three months after the decision of the Tax Court as was required by 26 U.S.C. § 1142 which provided:

and by 26 U.S.C. § 1140 making the agency’s decision final, reading: .

Clearly here the conditions precedent to the Court of Appeals’ jurisdiction to review Tax Court action is the filing of the petition within three months of the Tax .Court’s first decision which was entered on April 8, 1954. No such petition, was .filed. Some four months after the decision, on August 23, 1954, the petitioners moved the Tax Court to vacate the decision of April 8, 1954, on the ground of'excusable…