Westover

Social Security taxes were assessed against and paid by Stockholders Publishing Company (hereinafter “taxpayer”) for the years 1943, 1944, and 1945; refunds were sought and denied; and separate actions for recovery of the taxes were brought against the Collectors who had enforced the payments. The two causes were consolidated for all purposes by order of the court below and were tried without a jury. The district judge made an ultimate finding of fact, Cf. Baumgartner v. United States, 322 U.S. 665, 670 , 64 S.Ct. 1240 , 88 L.Ed. 1525 , and concluded as a matter of law that certain persons described as “route district men” and “dealers”, in respect of whose earnings the taxes in question were assessed, were not employees of the taxpayer and that their earnings were, therefore, nontaxable under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act, 26 U.S.C.A. § 1600 et seq. Judgments were entered in favor of the taxpayer and the Collectors have appealed.

The evidence in the case is without material conflict and, summarized, it presents this picture: In the years for which the taxes were assessed taxpayer was in the business of publishing a daily newspaper, “The Daily News”, at Los Angeles,…