Opinion
6709-19L
07-19-2023
ROBERT L. STEPHENSON, Petitioner v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent
ORDER OF DISMISSAL FOR LACK OF JURISDICTION
David Gustafson Judge
Now pending before the Court are a motion for summary judgment (Doc. 52) filed by petitioner Robert L. Stephenson and a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction (Doc. 54) filed by the Commissioner. We will deny Mr. Stephenson's motion for summary judgment and will grant the Commissioner's motino to dismiss.
Background
When Mr. Stephenson did not pay certain assessed income tax liabilities upon notice and demand, the IRS issued to him in June 2016 a notice of intent to levy (Doc. 20 at 67), which advised him of his right to request a CDP hearing before IRS Appeals. In July 2016 he timely submitted a Form 12153, "Request for a Collection Due Process or Equivalent Hearing" (Doc. 20 at 72). Thereafter IRS Appeals conducted a CDP hearing as to collection of Mr. Stephenson's liabilities.
In September 2018, while the CDP hearing was ongoing, Mr. Stephenson filed a bankruptcy case in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland as case No. 18-22619. That case was dismissed two years later in September 2020. Thus, during the two-year pendency of that case--i.e., from September 2018 through September 2020--the "automatic stay" provision of 11 U.S.C. sec. 362 was in effect.
However, IRS Appeals was apparently unaware of the bankruptcy case, and Mr. Stephenson was apparently unaware of the automatic stay; and they both continued to act in the CDP case. That is, while the automatic stay was in effect, IRS Appeals issued on March 26, 2019, the purported notice of determination that is the basis for this case; and Mr. Stephenson filed on April 24, 2019, the purported petition that commenced this case.
After various proceedings in this case (including the issuance of various orders), Mr. Stephenson made on April 3, 2023, a filing (Doc. 45) that disclosed that he "filed a Chapter 13 last year April-May and it had nothing to do with this case and the petitioner never included this case i[n] his filing." (Doc. 45 at 6.) We ordered the parties to make filings on the consequences of that bankruptcy case. (See Doc. 47.) Mr. Stephenson filed a motion for summary judgment (Doc. 52); and the Commissioner filed a motion to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction (Doc. 54), to which Mr. Stephenson responded (Doc. 56).
Discussion
IRS Appeals' issuance of its notice of determination and Mr. Stephenson's filing of his petition were acts undertaken in violation of the automatic stay of 11 U.S.C. sec. 362. Those acts were without legal effect, and we therefore lack jurisdiction to adjudicate this case. See Smith v. Commissioner, 124 T.C. 36 (2005).
If the Court had been aware of the automatic stay when this case was first filed, the proper action for us to have taken would have been to determine that we lacked jurisdiction and to dismiss the case. It is therefore
ORDERED that our prior orders--viz., Docs. 9-10, 23-25, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 39-40, 44, and 49--that took action beyond that which would have been necessary to determine our jurisdiction over this case are, to that extent, hereby deemed vacated. It is further
ORDERED that petitioner's motion for summary judgment is denied. It is further
ORDERED that this case is dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.