Club Gaona, Inc. v. United States

This action was instituted to recover a total of $29,897.64 in internal revenue taxes 1 paid for the calendar years 1941 to 1949, inclusive. The taxes for 1941-1947, inclusive, and for the period from January 1 to February 26, 1948, were assessed against, and paid by, the plaintiff’s predecessor of the same name, to be referred to as “the Club”, which was an unincorporated association. Both are named, as the Preamble to the Constitution and By-Laws of the plaintiff states, “in honor of the famed Mexican bullfighter ‘Rodolfo Gaona.’ ” The taxes for the remainder of the year 1948 and for the year 1949 were assessed against and paid by the plaintiff, after its incorporation, when it succeeded to all the assets, liabilities, rights, duties and obligations of the Club. Timely claims for refunds have been made and rejected.

The basic fact upon which the assertion that the taxes were illegally assessed and collected is stated repeatedly in the complaint to be that its predecessor

and that the plaintiff itself, for the partial year 1948 and the full year 1949,

There is the added allegation that

Plaintiff thus seeks to bring itself within the purview of § 101(8) of the Internal Revenue…