Opinion
25868-22S
03-21-2023
ANTAWN JAMAL SANDERS, Petitioner v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent
ORDER
Ronald L. Buch, Judge
Pending before the Court is the Commissioner's Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Jurisdiction. The petitioner, Antawn Sanders, has filed an Objection. To resolve the pending Motion, the Court intends to take judicial notice of the attached documents and the facts stated in them. We will provide the parties an opportunity to address this information.
Background
The Commissioner mailed a notice of deficiency to Mr. Sanders on September 8, 2022. Notwithstanding the actual mailing date, the notice of deficiency was dated September 12, 2022, and the notice states that the last day to file a petition with this Court was December 12, 2022. Ninety days from September 12, 2022, was December 11, 2022, which was a Sunday.
Mr. Sanders electronically filed his Petition in this case. At the time he filed his Petition, the Court's electronic case management system (DAWSON) automatically applied a cover sheet to the petition and assigned a docket number to the newly filed case. The cover sheet stated that the Petition was electronically filed, that the case was assigned docket number 25868-22S, and that the Petition was received at 12:00 am on December 13, 2022.
The Commissioner filed a Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Jurisdiction on January 25, 2023. In his Motion, the Commissioner argues that Mr. Sanders's Petition was not timely filed and that this case must be dismissed. The Court ordered Mr. Sanders to respond.
Mr. Sanders filed an Objection to the Commissioner's Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Jurisdiction on February 21, 2023. In his Objection, Mr. Sanders stated as follows:
I object to this motion due to the fact that I logged in and uploaded documents on time. On December 12, 2022 I attempted several times to upload documents well before midnight. Finally I was able to get it uploaded and it literally did not finish the upload until exactly 12a.
I am sure it can be proven that the system had errors and that my upload was loading before cut off time. I understand technology is a gift and a curse but I did do my part to have the documents in on time.
The Court must decide whether to grant or deny the Commissioner's Motion, which requires that the Court determine whether Mr. Sanders's Petition was timely. To do so, the Court has reviewed its own records related to Mr. Sanders's electronic filing of his Petition.
Judicial Notice
The Court is permitted to take judicial notice of facts that can be accurately and readily determined from sources whose accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned. Fed. R. of Evid. 201(b)(2). The Court may take judicial notice on its own, but if a party requests to be heard on the propriety of taking judicial notice, the Court must provide such an opportunity. The purpose of this Order is to provide that opportunity.
Facts to be Noticed
The Court intends to take judicial notice of the documents attached to this Order and the following facts, which are derived from those documents:
Exhibit A
1. The document accompanying this Order and marked as Exhibit A provides a summary of all activity in DAWSON from Mr. Sander's IP address from 00:00:00.00 on December 12, 2022, through 00:30:00.00 on December 13, 2022 (i.e., all of December 12, 2022, through 30 minutes past midnight on December 13, 2022). Mr. Sanders's IP address has been partially redacted for privacy.
2. Exhibit A shows all DAWSON activity from Mr. Sanders's IP address regardless of whether a user at that IP address was logged into DAWSON.
3. The time format shown on Exhibit A is Eastern time using a 24-hour clock, and time is recorded to the thousandth of a second.
4. Exhibit A shows the type of device operating system for the device that was used to interact with DAWSON.
5. A "400" in the column labeled "response.statusCode" indicates a failed attempt to interact with DAWSON.
6. There was a successful login to Mr. Sanders's DAWSON account (indicated by POST /auth/login) from an Android device at Mr. Sanders's IP address on December 12, 2022, at 23:03:07.442 (i.e., 11:03 pm).
7. There was another successful login to Mr. Sanders's DAWSON account from an Android device at Mr. Sanders's IP address on December 12, 2022, at 23:42:53.728.
8. There was a logout of Mr. Sanders's DAWSON account (indicated by DELETE /auth/login) from an Android device at Mr. Sanders's IP address on December 12, 2022, at 23:44:10.986.
9. There was a failed attempt to login to Mr. Sanders's DAWSON account from a Windows device at Mr. Sanders's IP address on December 12, 2022, at 23:56:15.888.
10. There was a successful login to Mr. Sanders's DAWSON account from a Windows device at Mr. Sanders's IP address on December 12, 2022, at 23:57:21.379.
Exhibit B
1. The document accompanying this Order and marked as Exhibit B provides a summary of Mr. Sanders's DAWSON account activity, while logged in, from 00:00:00.00 on December 12, 2022 through 00:30:00.00 on December 13, 2022. Mr. Sanders's email address has been partially redacted for privacy.
2. The time format shown on Exhibit B is Eastern time using a 24-hour clock, and time is recorded to the thousandth of a second.
3. Exhibit B shows the type of device operating system for the device that was logged into DAWSON.
4. On December 12, 2022, the first activity in Mr. Sanders's DAWSON account after having logged in occurred from an Android device at 23:03:07.663.
5. On December 12, 2022, the last activity in Mr. Sanders's DAWSON account from that Android device occurred at 23:44:11.973.
6. There were no attempts to file a Petition or upload a document through Mr. Sanders's DAWSON account from that Android device on December 12, 2022.
7. On December 12, 2022, at 23:57:23.907, there was activity in Mr. Sanders's DAWSON account from a Windows device.
8. On December 13, 2022, at 00:00:09.493, Mr. Sanders's DAWSON account initiated the upload of a Petition.
9. On December 13, 2022, at 00:00:11.693, a Petition was filed through Mr. Sanders's DAWSON account.
10. On December 13, 2022, at 00:03:31.472, Mr. Sanders's DAWSON account downloaded a copy of the filed Petition.
11. On December 13, 2022, at 00:10:34.257, Mr. Sanders's DAWSON account downloaded a copy of the filed Petition a second time.
12. On December 12, 2022, there were no attempts to file a Petition or upload a document through Mr. Sanders's DAWSON account.
Exhibit C
1. The document accompanying this Order and marked as Exhibit C provides a summary of all attempts to log into DAWSON from 23:30:00.00 on December 12, 2022, until 00:30:00.00 on December 13, 2022. The users' IP addresses have been partially redacted for privacy.
2. The time format shown on Exhibit C is Eastern time using a 24-hour clock, and time is recorded to the thousandth of a second.
3. Exhibit C shows the type of device operating system for the device that was used to log into DAWSON.
4. Mr. Sanders' IP address begins with "69."
5. A "400" in the column labeled "response.statusCode" indicates a failed attempt to interact with DAWSON.
6. There was a successful login to Mr. Sanders's DAWSON account from an Android device at Mr. Sanders's IP address at 23:42:53.728.
7. There was an unsuccessful login attempt to Mr. Sanders's DAWSON account from a Windows device at Mr. Sanders's IP address at 23:56:15.888.
8. There was a successful login to another user's DAWSON account from a Windows device at 23:56:16:296.
9. There was a successful login to Mr. Sanders's DAWSON account from a Windows device at Mr. Sanders's IP address at 23:57:21.379.
The Court having provided these facts and exhibits to the parties, the Court will provide the parties with an opportunity to supplement their papers. Accordingly, it is
ORDERED that the Commissioner may supplement his Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Jurisdiction, filed January 25, 2023, by March 31, 2023. It is further
ORDERED that Mr. Sanders may supplement his Objection to the Commissioner's Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Jurisdiction, filed February 21, 2023, by April 14, 2023. It is further
ORDERED that any amicus brief addressing the timeliness of an electronically filed petition shall be filed by April 28, 2023. It is further
ORDERED that the small tax case designation is removed, and further proceedings in this case are not subject to I.R.C. § 7463. It is further
ORDERED that the caption of this case is amended by deleting the letter "S" from the docket number. It is further
ORDERED that the Clerk of the Court amend the Court's records to reflect the above-mentioned deletion.