Batman v. Commissioner

Batman v. Commissioner
Court	United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Full case name	Ray L. Batman and Edith G. Batman v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue
Decided	May 22, 1951
Citation(s)	189 F.2d 107 (5th Cir. 1951)
Case history
Prior history	Judgement for respondent, 9 TCM (CCH) 210 (1950)
Subsequent history	Petition for rehearing denied, August 7, 1951; cert denied, 342 U.S. 877 (1951)
Holding
Partnership was not formed between petitioner and minor son since all activities that formed it were initiated by petitioner, not son, and record did not suggest any involvement by son in creating partnership, therefore farm income from both years in dispute is taxed as individual income. United States Tax Court affirmed.
Court membership
Judge(s) sitting	Joseph Chappell Hutcheson, Jr., Wayne G. Borah and Robert Lee Russell
Case opinions
Majority	Hutcheson
Laws applied
Internal Revenue Code

Batman v. Commissioner, 189 F.2d 107 (5th Cir. 1951),^[1] is a 1951 decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in the area of partnership taxation. It concerned a bid by a Texas Panhandle farmer to convert his farm into a family partnership by transferring some of its assets to his teenaged son. A three-judge panel unanimously affirmed the decision of the United States Tax Court that disallowed this.

The Tax Court judge had not found that any of the actions taken to convert the farm into a partnership between father and son were the result of a genuine desire by the young man to be his father's partner. Although he had been doing a fair share of the farm's work, it seemed his father had taken all the steps to make him a partner, against the advice of his banker. The sole reason for the action was found to be a desire by the petitioner to reduce his individual tax liability.

Joseph Chappell Hutcheson, Jr., then the circuit's chief judge, wrote for the panel in affirming the Tax Court's holding, although he also left intact some of the refunds it had granted. In a later case, the Tax Court found that a family partnership was formed for some subsequent tax years. While it has not been cited in many later tax cases,^[2] its unintentionally humorous title,^[3] suggesting a lawsuit between Batman and Commissioner Gordon from the DC Comics franchise, has earned it some notoriety in legal circles.^[4][5]