United States Ninth Circuit

In a dispute in which taxpayers sought attorneys' fees from the government for their pursuit of two federal court petitions to quash third-party summonses by the IRS, a ruling for the government is affirmed where, although the district court erred in placing the burden to prove lack of substantial justification on taxpayers, as a matter of law, the government met its burden of proving its position was substantially justified. The government's prelitigation conduct could not be factored into a determination of whether its position in the judicial proceeding "was substantially justified" under the applicable statute.

Appellate Information

• Argued 12/05/2006
• Decided 04/17/2007
• Published 04/17/2007

Judges

• McKEOWN, Circuit Judge:, Before: B. FLETCHER and M. MARGARET McKEOWN, Circuit Judges, and WILLIAM W. SCHWARZER, District Judge.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Robert J. Chicoine and Cori Flanders-Palmer, Chicoine & Hallett, P.S., Seattle, WA, for appellants Pacific Fisheries and Konstantin Vladimirovich Voloshenko.


• For Appellees:
  
• Gretchen Wolfinger, Eileen J. O'Connor, and Jonathan Cohen, Department of Justice, Washington, DC, and John McKay, United States Attorney, Seattle, WA, for appellee United States.