Supermail Cargo, Inc. v. United States

In this case, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) levied upon funds due to a company without notifying the company that it had done so. The debt that the IRS was attempting; to collect was owed by the company’s former lawyers, not the company, as the IRS knew. In fact, the company owed no money to the IRS at all. When the company finally discovered what had happened to its funds and tried to file a request, the IRS first ignored its efforts and, later, erroneously told the company that it had filed with the wrong office. After the company filed with the office the IRS told it to file with, the IRS said that the filing was too late. Now that the company has filed a lawsuit, the IRS argues that the time to sue expired because it ran not from the time the company filed with the office the IRS told it to file with, but from the time of the filing the IRS had said was invalid. Those, at least, are the allegations of the complaint, and thus the facts we are required to assume for purposes of the appeal before us. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that we reverse the district court’s dismissal of the company’s complaint.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Supermail Cargo, Inc.…