- 96 - recoupment there didn't eliminate all opportunity for the defendant to obtain complete justice with respect to the transaction in issue, whereas barring recoupment in our case would amount to denying complete justice. To allow an affirmative recovery arising from the same transaction to bar or limit recoupment (as the District Court in United States v. Timber Access Indus. Co., supra, refused to do) does less violence to the idea of doing complete justice with respect to the one transaction than would allowing an unrelated affirmative recovery (like that in our case with respect to the previously taxed property credit) to have such a limiting effect. Thus, there was more reason in United States v. Timber Access Indus. Co., supra, than there is in our case to limit recoupment by the amount of the affirmative recovery, and nevertheless the District Court didn't do so. United States v. Timber Access Indus. Co., supra, which is cited and discussed at some length in 6 Wright et al., Federal Practice & Procedure, sec. 1427, at 197-198 n.8 (2d ed. 1990), illustrates the point that another affirmative recovery with its own independent jurisdictional basis, even when it arises from the same transaction from which a recoupment defense or counterclaim arises, does not bar or limit recoupment. It is appropriate to use these non-tax cases, and most especially Reiter v. Cooper, in the tax area. Reiter v. Cooper not only cited Bull v. United States at a crucial point in itsPage: Previous 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 Next
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