Ronald Woody and Shirley Woody v. United States

. This is an appeal from the judgment of the District Court dismissing appellant’s claim for tax refund pursuant to the jury’s response to special interrogatories regarding whether strike benefits received by appellant were gift or income for income tax purposes. We hold that the jury instructions were correct and that the evidence is sufficient to support the jury’s finding that the benefits were not gifts. We therefore affirm the dismissal.

Taxpayer Ronald Woody, appellant herein, and wife, both residents of Oregon, filed a joint income tax return for the year I960. In that return, Woody reported as non-taxable gifts the strike benefits totaling $5,286.00 which he had received during 1960. The Commissioner determined that these benefits were properly taxable as income and asserted a deficiency of $736.84. Appellant paid the disputed tax with interest on July 30, 1963, and November 1, 1963. A timely claim for refund of the tax was filed on November 1, 1963, and rejected on February 18, 1964. The present action was filed in the Federal District Court for the District of Oregon on November 24, 1964.

At all times relevant to this case, appellant was a member of Stereotypers and…