Estate of Rollin E. Meyer, Sr., Deceased v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

Before BARNES and WALLACE, Circuit Judges, and FERGUSON, District Judge.

Messrs. Meyer, father and son, were general partners in a real estate partnership. They exchanged their partnership interests for a second real estate partnership in which the son was a general partner and the father was a limited partner. Both partnerships were involved in owning and renting apartments in the San Francisco area. Each claimed the exchange was of property of like kind and, therefore, nontaxable pursuant to section 1031(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. The tax court agreed with the son but not the father, resulting in this appeal by the father’s estate. 58 T.C. 311 (1972). We affirm.

We review the decisions of the tax court under the same standards that we review the decisions of a district court:

Factor v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 281 F.2d 100, 109 (9th Cir. 1960), cert. denied, 364 U.S. 933 , 81 S.Ct. 380 , 5 L.Ed.2d 365 (1961) (footnotes omitted).

Since there is no dispute over the facts in the present case, we are faced only with the legal question of whether the property was of like kind within the meaning of section 1031(a). Although the statute does not…