Opinion
10110-20
06-17-2022
GREG A. NINKE & JANE M. NINKE, Petitioners v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent
ORDER
James S. Halpern, Judge
This case was tried before the undersigned on April 11, 2022, in Phoenix, Arizona. At the conclusion of the trial, the Court set a briefing schedule, with petitioners to file their opening seriatim brief on or before June 27, 2022. On May 31, 2022, petitioners informally informed the Court that they wished the Court to pay the expense of a transcript of the trial for them. We instructed petitioners that they should file a written motion setting forth reasons for the request, including financial information showing financial need. We instructed petitioners to provide the information requested on the Court's Application for Waiver of Filing Fee and Affidavit. We suspended the briefing schedule until we could act on petitioners' motion.
On June 3 we received from petitioners an Application for Waiver of Filing Fee and Affidavit (application) but no motion. The application shows monthly income of $4,460, consisting of salary, unemployment benefits for Ms. Ninke (who has been laid off from her job), and pension income; the yearly total is $53,520. The application lists as considerations for the Court to take into account various credit cards (without any amount) and medical debt of $20,000, but without any payment schedule. On June 8, 2022, we received petitioners' motion to waive fees. It recites, among other things, that the cost of a transcript for the April 11 trial is $616.85, petitioners do not have the resources to pay the full amount, and a copy of the transcript is necessary for them to move forward and brief the case as instructed by the Court. It requests that we waive the fee for a copy of the transcript.
Having considered petitioners' motion and the application, we agree that they need a post-trial transcript to properly prepare their brief, but we do not find that, with annual income in excess of $50,000, with the cost of the transcript being $616.85, and without a better understanding of the present burden of their medical debt, petitioners have not shown need for the Court to pay the cost of the transcript.
The Court will strike from the record docket entry 33 filed on June 9, 2022, as it appears to be a duplicate of docket entries 31 and 32. Therefore, it is
ORDERED that the above-referenced docket entry 33 filed on June 9, 2022, is hereby deemed stricken from the record and shall not be viewable as part of this case. It is further
ORDERED that petitioners' motion to waive fees is denied. It is further
ORDERED that on or before July 27, 2022, petitioners shall file their seriatim opening brief. It is further
ORDERED that on or before September 12, 2022, respondent shall file its seriatim answering brief. It is further
ORDERED that if petitioners wish to file a reply brief, they must file a motion with the Court within 10 days of respondent's answering brief.