Frank E. Stankevitz v. Irs, Michael Sassi, B. Morton, Jerome Kurtz, and John J. Kounad

Frank Stankevitz brought this action alleging that the defendants, various agents of the IRS, conspired to deprive him of constitutional rights by maliciously auditing his account and assessing an unjust deficiency. The district court found each individual defendant to be absolutely immune from suit and the IRS immune by reason of sovereign immunity, and granted summary judgment in favor of all defendants. Stankevitz has alleged some facts— such as the equivalence of the amount of the alleged deficiency and the amount in controversy in a prior criminal trial in which Stankevitz’s conviction was reversed on appeal—which, if proven, would cast some doubt on the propriety of the audit and assessment. However, since all of the individual defendants in this case were “responsible for the decision to initiate or continue a proceeding subject to agency adjudication,” we agree with the district court’s conclusion that these defendants are absolutely immune from a damage action. Butz v. Economu, 438 U.S. 478, 516 , 98 S.Ct. 2894, 2915 , 57 L.Ed.2d 895 . Rather, the proper procedure for raising a claim of an illegal agency proceeding is as a defense in the enforcement proceeding itself. As…