Huntley

This was a suit by a corporation taxpayer against the United States collector of internal revenue and his deputy t.o cancel and annul an income and profits tax waiver executed by the secretary of the corporation, on the ground that the waiver was procured by duress and on the further ground that the secretary was without authority to bind the corporation. The bill of complaint was dismissed on motion in the court below for the reason that the United States was a necessary party, and the plaintiff has appealed.

The purpose of the waiver was to extend the period of the statute of limitations for the collection of a tax by distraint or by suit, and, if the instrument has any virtue at all, it is as a contract between the taxpayer and the United States. That such a contract cannot be annulled or canceled in a suit against officers of the United States to which the United States is not a party would seem too plain to admit of discussion. No doubt the government is not a necessary party to a suit against an officer to compel him to perform ministerial duties enjoined by law, to restrain him from- acting illegally or without authority of law, or in an action of trespass or for a tort.…