Melvin J. Laney and Carolyn A. Laney - Page 36

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            fires, storms, and shipwrecks.  Popa v. Commissioner, 73 T.C.                             
            130, 132-133 (1979); White v. Commissioner, 48 T.C. 430, 434-435                          
            (1967); Durden v. Commissioner, 3 T.C. 1, 3-4 (1944).  As we put                          
            it in Billman v. Commissioner, 73 T.C. 139, 141-142 (1979)--                              
                       We cannot believe that the Internal Revenue Code                               
                  was designed to take care of all losses that the                                    
                  economic world may bestow on its inhabitants.  It is                                
                  restricted in its description of a casualty loss to                                 
                  “losses aris[ing] from fire, storm, shipwreck, or other                             
                  casualty, or from theft.”  Certainly these taxpayers                                
                  did not suffer from “fire, storm, [or] shipwreck.” Of                               
                  course they suffered.  But, was it from “other                                      
                  casualty?”  To us, “other casualty” means a similar                                 
                  kind of occurrence to “fire, storm, [or] shipwreck.”                                
                  * * *                                                                               
                  Firstly, Poppe’s successful foreclosure proceeding is not                           
            the type of event that is sudden, undesigned, violent or                                  
            forceful, unexpected, and accidental.  Secondly, even assuming                            
            that petitioners lost all value of the Island and R.K. on account                         
            of the Army Corps of Engineers’ action of denying permits to                              
            develop the Island, that denial is not the type of event that is                          
            sudden, undesigned, violent or forceful, unexpected, and                                  
            accidental.  Thus, Laney’s loss was not from an “other casualty”.                         
            Powers v. Commissioner, 36 T.C. at 1193; see Beltran v. United                            
            States, 441 F.2d 954, 960 (7th Cir. 1971); Alvarez v. United                              
            States, 431 F.2d 1261, 1264 (5th Cir. 1970).                                              
                  We hold, for respondent, that Laney’s claimed 1983 loss did                         
            not arise from fire, storm, shipwreck, or other casualty.                                 







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