81-1 USTC P 9193
UNITED STATES of America and Edmond J. Martin, Special
Agent, Internal Revenue Service, Plaintiffs-Appellees,
v.
Craig E. DAVIS, Defendant-Appellant.
UNITED STATES of America and Edmond Martin, Special Agent,
Plaintiffs- Appellees,
v.
Stephen M. ORR, Defendant-Appellant.
Nos. 79-2630, 80-1015.
United States Court of Appeals,
Fifth Circuit.
Unit A
Feb. 12, 1981.
Chаrles O. Grigson, Austin, Tex., for defendants-appellants.
Harold O. Atkinson, Asst. U. S. Atty., San Antonio, Tex., Gilbert E. Andrews, Chief, Appellate Section, Charles E. Brookhart, William A. Whitledge, Attys., Tax Div., M. Carr Ferguson, Asst. Atty. Gen., U. S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., for plaintiffs-appellees.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.
Before WISDOM, AINSWORTH and GEE, Circuit Judges.
WISDOM, Circuit Judge:
These two cases involve the validity of two civil investigative summonses issued by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) under 26 U.S.C. § 7602. Craig Davis and Stephen Orr, the summonees, appeal from separate judgments enforcing summonses that require each to produce documents and give testimony relating to the income tax liability of their client, Robert M. Howard, for the years 1974 through 1977. We agree with the result the district court reached in most of its rulings but we disagree with the court's analysis of the attorney-client privilege as applied to Davis and Orr. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and vacate and remand in part.
I.
The events leading up to these appeals are not seriously disputed. On April 12, 1978, IRS Special Agеnt Edmond Martin began gathering information about narcotics traffic in Austin, Texas, to determine whether those engaged in such illicit commerce had a least paid their just tax on income derived from that activity. From the beginning, Robert Howard figured prominently in the investigation. Parallel investigations into Texas drug traffic were simultaneously being conducted by the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the Attorney General of the State of Texas. From William Fargo, a member of the Texas Attorney General's office, Martin obtained information tending to implicate Howard in marijuana smuggling, and in August 1978, Fargo corroborated earlier reports that Howard controlled a corporation which owned a 79-foot yacht. Because Howard reported little or no income on his income tax returns for the years 1972 through 1976, Martin not surprisingly surmised that if those rumors had a factual basis, Howard might have had substantial unreported income in those years. The IRS therefore began a formal tax investigation of Howard on August 23.
On September 1 Fargo informed Martin that Howard had just been arrested on a drug charge and that contraband and documents had been seized in a search of Howard's residence under a search warrant. Martin accepted Fargo's invitation to inspect the documents, and made photographic and microfilm copies of some of them. Following standard IRS procedure,1 Martin delivered the copies to his supervisor, who sealed them pending internal review of the validity of the search. Because the search warrant, by oversight, had not been signed by the issuing magistrate, the copies have remained sealed.
Agent Martin next tried to further the investigation by what has become a familiar IRS tactic: issuing summonses to the taxpayer's attorneys and accountants. On September 5, a summons was issued to Davis, an attorney and certified public accountant who had prepared Howard's tax returns for several of the years in question. The summons required Davis to produce and testify as to two categories of documents.2 First, he was to bring all records in his possession of financial transactions by Howard or corporations in which Howard had participated for the years 1974 through 1978. Second, he was to produce the workpapers he had generated in the course of preparing Howard's tax returns for those years. At Howard's request, Davis refused to comply with any part of the summons, citing the attorney-client privilege as justification. The government filed a petition under 26 U.S.C. § 7604 to enforce the summons. After an evidentiary hearing at which Davis's counsel had an opportunity to cross-examine Martin and Fargo extensively, the district court issued an order granting the government's petition in full.
While the proceeding to enforce the summons issued to Davis was pending, the government issued two more summonses. One was issued to Howard himself. Howard appeared at Agent Martin's office in compliance with that summons on Decembеr 26, 1978, with his counsel, Orr, but did not produce any documents or answer any questions, asserting his fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination. The government has not sought judicial enforcement of that summons, and it is not in issue in this appeal. The other summons, however, was issued to Orr, one of Davis's law partners. Orr has represented and continues to represent Howard in several criminal proceedings; Orr had represented Howard in the two earlier summons proceedings until Orr was himself summoned. The summons to Orr, issued on February 23, 1979, required him to produce fourteen categories of documents, falling into three broad classes:3 (1) Orr's records of financial transactions between Orr and Howard, including loans, gifts, and compensation to Orr; (2) Orr's records of financial transactions between Howard and third parties, including records of the disbursement of funds to others by Orr's law firm on Howard's behalf, and records of activities in which the law firm had assisted Howard in acquiring or disposing of money and property; (3) business records created by Howard or by corporations controlled by Howard in Orr's possession. Orr, like Davis, made a blanket assertion of privilege and refused to comply with any part of the summons. The government petitioned for enforcement and after a second evidentiary hearing the district court granted the petition.
Davis and Orr separately obtained stays and each appealed. They advance overlapping arguments against enforcement of their summonses.
II.
Both Davis and Orr assert that the government failed to meet the standards laid down in United States v. Powell, 1964,
the investigation will be conducted pursuant to a legitimate purpose, that the inquiry may be relevant to the purpose, that the information sought is not already within the Commissioner's possession, and that the administrative steрs required by the Code have been followed....
A.
Several of the appellants' arguments may be dismissed with a minimum of discussion. Davis argues both that the summons issued to him was based on information obtained in the search of Howard's residence and, more generally, that the entire IRS investigation resulted from information obtained in that search. Since the search was made under an unsigned warrant, he argues that his summons is a tainted fruit of an unlawful search. We need not consider the merits of this argument as a matter of law.4 The district court specifically found that Davis did not meet his burden of demonstrating that the investigation or the summons was based on the fruits of the search. That finding is not clearly erroneous. Since the documents obtained by the IRS from that search were sealed and never used, they cannot be a source of taint. Martin admitted that while he was making copies of the seized documents he noticed the names of certain corporations presumably owned or controlled by Howard, but the evidence is that long before then those names and relationships were known to the IRS.
Nor is there merit to Davis's contention that the summons issued to him was unenforceably vague. Because he did not raise this contention before the trial court, it need not be considered on appeal in the absence of exceptional circumstances resulting in a miscarriage of justice. D. H. Overmyer Co. v. Loflin, 5 Cir. 1971,
B.
Both Davis and Orr contend that the sole institutional purpose of the IRS in issuing the summonses was to aid future criminal prosecutions against Howard. Notwithstanding that the IRS has not made a recommendation for criminal prosecution to the Department of Justice and that agent Martin has not recommended criminal proceedings to his superiors, appellants offer the following as indicia of criminal purpose: the investigation was initiated by Martin, a Special Agent and therefore a member of the IRS's criminal investigation arm; Martin himself was admittedly concerned only with criminal investigation; and the revenue agent assigned to the case has to date played a purely passive role.6 They also point to the cooperation between the IRS and state and federal drug enforcement agencies and to the IRS's attempt to summon certain of Howard's bank records from Davis and Orr rather than directly from his bank; and they allege that the IRS deliberately delayed recommending prosecution to the Department of Justice to gather more information through these summonses.
In United States v. LaSalle National Bank, 1978,
The questiоn of institutional purpose is one of fact. United States v. First National Bank of Atlanta, 5 Cir. 1980,
Both Davis and Orr contend that their summonses should not be enforced because the IRS already possesses some of the information requested by the summonses. The affidavits accompanying the government's petitions to enforce the summonses deny that the IRS possesses any of the summoned information. These assertions are sufficient to shift to the summonees the burden of showing, at a minimum, "actual possession of the information by the IRS." United States v. Garrett, 5 Cir. 1978,
Even if Orr had specifically preserved the point, however, we hold that it would not have been error for the district court to enforce the summons in its entirety. The "already possessed by government" defense originated in the passage of United States v. Powell quoted above, for which the Supreme Court cited no authority. Powell construed not only the implicit prerequisites to enforceability of a summons issued under 26 U.S.C. §§ 7602, 7604(b), but also the explicit limitation contained in 26 U.S.C. § 7605(b), which forbids "unnecessary" summonses. Read in context, we construe the "already possessed" principle enunciated by Powell as a gloss on § 7605(b)'s prohibition of "unnecessary" summonses, rather than an absolute prohibition against the enforcement of any summons to the extent that it requests the production of information already in the possession of the IRS.
This balancing approach is supported by analogy to the principles governing the enforcement of grand jury subpoenas. The Supreme Court has frequently made reference to such an analogy in interpreting the scope of the IRS's summons power. See, e.g. United States v. Euge, 1980,
In practice, Powell's possession defense has been so applied. For example, in United States v. Schwartz, 5 Cir. 1972,
Just as the need to permit effective investigation may justify the IRS summoning information it already possesses, so should the need to expedite summons enforcement proceedings. Enforcement proceedings are essentially summary in nature. Donaldson v. United States, 1971,
III.
In addition to trying to disprove the prima facie enforceability of the summonses issued to them, Davis and Orr made blanket assertions concerning the attorney-client privilege, the work product doctrine, and their client's fifth amendment privilege, all of which the district court rejected. Appellants urge us to pass on all their claims of documentary privilege now and to require the government to submit its questions to the district court in advance to screen them through their claims of privilege. The government, by contrast, suggests that the summonses should have been enforced without considering any claims of privilege; it argues that all claims of privilege should be asserted on a document-by-document or question-by-question basis before the summoning officer after enforcement, who may then test the claims of privilege by instituting contempt proceedings.
It is generally agreed that the recipient of a summons properly should appear before the issuing agent and claim privileges on a question-by-question and document-by-document basis. United States v. Malnik, 5 Cir. 1974,
A.
Two of those claims are without merit. Appellants' attempt to assert their client's fifth amendment privilege vicariously is squarely forbidden by Couch v. United States, 1973,
The summonees' attempt to bring the summoned documents within the work product doctrine is similarly meritless. Without pausing to resolve the debate over whether the work product doctrine can ever apply in IRS summons proceedings,10 it is plain here that none of the summoned documents were "materials prepared by an attorney 'acting for his client in anticipation of litigation' ". United States v. Nobles, 1975,
B.
Finally, both Davis and Orr contend that the requested documents are protected by the attorney-client privilege. The district court properly looked to Fisher v. United States, 1976,
The district court's analysis was erroneous in two ways. First, the second prong of the Fisher test that the documents be privileged in the client's hands need not be satisfied for every document before an attorney-client privilege should be recognized as to it, but only for documents delivered by the cliеnt to the attorney which were not themselves created as communications to the attorney. Following Professor Wigmore, Fisher reasoned that to permit individuals to obtain fully informed legal advice, it is necessary to permit them to transfer relevant documents to their attorneys without losing any evidentiary privileges the documents might possess in their own hands. At the same time, documents created outside the attorney-client relationship should not be held privileged in the hands of the attorney unless otherwise privileged in the hands of the client, lest the client immunize incriminating evidence merely by depositing it with his attorney. This reasoning applies only to what Fisher loosely termed "preexisting" documents in Wigmore's more precise formulation, documents that did not come into existence as communications from the client to the attorney. 8 J. Wigmore, Evidence § 2307, at 599 (McNaughton rev.1961). Letters from the client to the attorney seeking legal advice, for example, and all documents created by the attorney that are within the normal ambit of the common-law attorney-client privilege therefore need not be tested for privilege in the client's hands.
Second, the district court's ruling that none of the summoned documents could have been privileged in Howard's hands was too broad, even as applied only to preexisting documents transferred by Howard to his attorneys. In interpreting the fifth amendment self-incrimination clause as applied to compelled production of documents and other tangibles, the Supreme Court has constructed two basic frameworks for analysis.11 Fisher itself exemplifies one analysis: the privilege exists only when an individual "is compelled to make a testimonial communication that is incriminating" that is, only when the individual is compelled to affirm the truth of a statement which incriminates him. Fisher v. United States, 1976,
Yet other Supreme Court decisions suggest that in addition to creating the above protection, the fifth amendment creates a zone of privacy which absolutely protects documents from production by summons or subpoena as long as they are in the hands of the owner. Indeed, this was the premise of Boyd v. United States, 1886,
These two branches of fifth amendment analysis are not logically exclusive of each other. Nothing in Fisher suggests otherwise; the Court expressly found that the accountant's workpapers summoned there were not the taxpayer's papers and hence would be outside the absolute protection of the Boyd principle even if in the taxpayer's hands.
This Court, however, has already rejected interpretations of Fisher and Andresen that would either limit the Boyd principle to non-business records or abolish it altogether. In re Grand Jury Proceedings (McCloy and Sussman), 5 Cir. 1979,
Nevertheless, many of the documents summoned here cannot be within the attorney-client privilege. Both preexisting documents and documents created in the course of the attorney-client relationship must fall within the common-law standards for attorney-client privilege to be protected under the Fisher test. But that privilege extends only to legal advice given by a lawyer. The summons to Davis requests the workpapers he produced in the course of preparing Howard's tax returns and the tax records upon which they were based. Neither category of documents is privileged, because although preparation of tax returns by itself may require some knowledge of the law, it is primarily an accounting service.17 Communications relating to that service should therefore not be privileged, even though performed by a lawyer. Olender v. United States, 9 Cir. 1954,
Many of the documents summoned from Orr similarly must relate to matters other than the giving of legal advice, and hence are outside the attorney-client privilege as well. Financial transactions between the attorney and client, including the compensation paid by or on behalf of the client (Items 1-4, 10 of the Orr summons) are not within the privilege except in special circumstances not present here. United States v. Finley, 5 Cir. 1970,
On the record before us, however, enforcement is not proper as to at least three items in the Orr summons. The government concedes that Howard's will (Item 11) is privileged, and the district court's order enforcing the summons is therefore reversed to that extent. Further proceedings are necessary to determine whether Items 9 and 12 preexisting records of business operations and financial statements of Howard and Poseidon Investments, Inc., a corporation controlled by Howard are privileged or not.20 It is possible that some of those documents satisfy both prongs of the Fisher test. If those documents were in Howard's possession, any which he held in a representative capacity for Poseidon could not, of course, be privileged under the fifth amendment, and the summons should be enforced as to such documents. But any documents relating to Howard's own affairs would be within the Boyd principle. As to those documents, the record does not disclose the purpose of and circumstances surrounding their transfer from Howard to Orr. If the information contained in those documents is confidential and the transfer was made for the purpose of obtaining legal advice, they will be privileged in Orr's hands. We therefore vacate that part of the district court's order enforcing Items 9 and 12 of the Orr summons and remand for further proceedings, including an in camera inspection of the documents to the extent the district court considers it appropriate. See United States v. Johnson, 5 Cir. 1972,
The order enforcing the summons to Davis, No. 79-2630, is AFFIRMED. The order enforcing the summons to Orr, No. 80-1015, is AFFIRMED IN PART, REVERSED IN PART, AND VACATED AND REMANDED IN PART.
Notes
See Handbook for Special Agents P 383. (13), in 6 Internal Revenue Manual Administration (CCH) P 9781 (1980); 5 id. at P 9451.2(3)
The terms of Davis's summons require him to give testimony relating to Howard's tax liability and to produce the following documents in regard to Howard and various corporations in which Howard participated:
Cash receipts and disbursements journals, general ledgers, subsidiary ledgers, check stubs, cancelled checks, deposit tickets, bank statements, deposit and withdrawal slips, records of stock purchased and sold, records of loans, records of real estate purchased and sold, records of rental income, records of assets bought and sold (including but not limited to vehicles, airplanes and boats), records of accounts payable and receivable, records of notes payable and receivable, records of inventory, financial statements, corporate minute records of inventory, financial statements, corporate minute books, corporate stock books, and any other documents necessary to compute a correct tax liability for the above periods
Accountants' workpapers, analysis of records, schedules, correspondence, retained copies of drafts of federal income tax returns and any other documents regarding the preparation of income tax returns for ROBERT M. HOWARD and the other above-listed names during the period 1974 through 1978
Orr's summons requires him to produce the following documents pertaining to Howard, Poseidon Investments, Inc., and other enterprises:
Records of any loans made by you to the above-designated subjects during the period January 1, 1972 through December 31, 1977, such loan records to include, but not limited to, the following information:
a. Date of the loan.
b. Amount of the loan.
c. Form in which the loan was made.
d. Purpose of the loan.
e. When the loan was repaid.
f. Form in which the loan was repaid.
g. Amounts and dates of repayment.
Records of any loans made by the above-designated subjects to you during the period January 1, 1972 through December 31, 1977, such loan records to include, but not limited, to the following information:
a. When the loan was made.
b. Amount of the loan.
c. Form in which the loan was made.
d. Purpose of the loan.
e. When the loan was repaid.
f. Form in which the loan was repaid.
g. Amounts and date of any and all repayments.
Records of any cash gifts made during the above noted period by you to the above-designated subjects, such records to include, but not limited to, the following:
a. Amount of the cash gift.
b. When the cash gift was made.
c. Identity of individual or individuals present when the gift was made.
Records of any cash gifts made to you during the above noted period by the above-designated subjects, such records to include, but not limited to, the following:
a. Amount of the cash gift.
b. Date of the cash gift to you.
c. Identity of individual or individuals present when the gift was made.
Records showing the dates and amounts of any money or property received by you or placed under your custody or control, or received by or placed under the custody or control of a member of your law firm for or on behalf of the above-designated subjects during the period January 1, 1972 through December 31, 1977
Records showing the dates and amounts of any disbursements of money or property made by you, or made at your direction, or made by or at the direction of a member of your law firm, for or on behalf of the above-designated subjects during the period January 1, 1972 through December 31, 1977
Records of any real or personal property you or your law firm assisted the above-designated subjects in acquiring, holding or disposing of during the period January 1, 1972 through December 31, 1977, such records to include but not limited to the following:
a. Stocks, bonds, certificates of deposit, cashier checks, money orders or other securities.
b. Loans made by the above-designated subjects to others than yourself.
c. Loans made to the above-designated subjects.
d. Real estate.
e. Airplanes, boats, yachts, automobiles and/or other personal property.
f. Bank checking or savings accounts.
g. Escrow accounts or funds.
Records pertaining to the establishment and maintenance or other transactions with any trust fund related to the above-designated subjects, such records to include but not limited to the following:
a. Establishment and maintenance of the trust.
b. Funds and properties flowing into and out of the trust.
c. Federal and state income or other tax returns or reports prepared and/or filed.
d. Accounting records.
Records pertaining to any business operations of the above-designated subjects, during the period January 1, 1972 through December 31, 1977 including, but not limited to such records as lease agreements, purchase agreements, sales agreements, mortgages, notes payable, notes receivable, accounts receivable, accounts payable, and accounting records for income, expenses, assets and liabilities of such business
Records showing the dates and amounts of all compensation paid to you or paid to your law firm by the above-designated subjects during the period January 1, 1972 through December 31, 1977
Records, including the final draft, pertaining tо any will and/or codicils of ROBERT MORRIS HOWARD prepared and/or maintained by you or your law firm
Records pertaining to any summaries of financial activities and the financial situation of the above-designated subjects during the period January 1, 1971 through December 31, 1977, including but not limited to income statements, balance sheets or other financial statements
Retained originals or copies of any Federal or state income tax returns of the above-designated subjects
Retained copies or originals of any other state or Federal reports or forms including but not limited to franchise tax returns, sales tax returns, and/or personal property inventories of the above-designated subjects
We question whether Davis and Orr have standing to raise this claim, since the allegedly illegal search of Howard's residence did not violate their fourth amendment rights. See Rakas v. Illinois, 1978,
Orr argues that he was not allowed adequate discovery. This Court thoroughly analyzed the scope of required discovery in IRS summons enforcement proceedings recently in United States v. Harris, 5 Cir. 1980,
"Special agents" are members of the Criminal Enforcement Division of the IRS. Civil tax assessment is the province of the Examinations Division; its agents are known as "revenue agents"
We note that there is no evidence that the IRS transmitted any information to the Drug Enforcement Administration in return, or that the summonses were directly inspired by the DEA; nor were IRS agents acting under the supervision of a joint task force attorney. Cf. United States v. Serubo, 3 Cir. 1979,
The appellants also assert that some of the documents seized in the search of Howard's residence and copied by Martin are identical with the records sought by the summonses, but nothing in the record so indicates
See also United States v. Davey, 2 Cir. 1976,
Two circuits hold that the work product doctrine does apply in summons proceedings. See United States v. Amerada Hess Corp., 3 Cir. 1980,
See generally Note, Formalism, Legal Realism, and Constitutionally Protected Privacy Under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, 90 Harv.L.Rev. 945 (1977)
Courts have differed over how to deal with the tacit authentication resulting from the summonee's implied affirmation that the papers delivered are the papers demanded. At least one Court has suggested that it might justify complete refusal to comply with the summons. In re Katz, 2 Cir. 1980,
See Couch v. United States, 1973,
See Bellis v. United States, 1974,
See Fisher v. United States, 1976,
"Equivalent process" includes IRS summonses and, in general, any procedure which forces an individual to make any testimonial communication on pain of contempt. See I.C.C. v. Gould, 3 Cir. 1980,
Accounting services performed ancillary to legal advice may be within the attorney-client privilege. United States v. Kovel, 2 Cir. 1961,
In any case, Colton noted that since part of the information that passes between the attorney-accountant and client will be disclosed on the tax returns directly or indirectly, that part at least is not a confidential communication and hence is not privileged.
This reasoning applies to item 8(b). Items 8(c) and 8(d) are unprivileged for other reasons set forth in the text. Documents establishing trust funds, requested by item 8(a), are not privileged because in their creation the attorney acts merely as a scrivener. See Pollock v. United States,
Blanket assertions of privilege before a district court are usually unacceptable. United States v. Hodgson, 10 Cir. 1974,
