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proceed with collection with respect to petitioner’s 1990 through
1998 tax years.
Section 6673(a)(1) authorizes this Court to require a
taxpayer to pay to the United States a penalty not to exceed
$25,000 if the taxpayer took frivolous positions in the
proceedings or instituted the proceedings primarily for delay.
In Pierson v. Commissioner, 115 T.C. 576, 581 (2000), we issued
an unequivocal warning to taxpayers concerning the imposition of
a penalty pursuant to section 6673(a) on taxpayers who abuse the
protections afforded by sections 6320 and 6330 by instituting or
maintaining actions under those sections primarily for delay or
by taking frivolous or groundless positions in such actions.
In its opinion regarding petitioner’s first U.S. District
Court lawsuit, the U.S. District Court stated that “Stewart is a
vexatious litigant” and that “Stewart’s complaints appear to be
an embittered and reckless attempt to chastise all who played any
role, however trivial, in the foreclosure proceedings upon his
house and his eviction therefrom and, thus, filed for an improper
purpose.” The U.S. District Court sanctioned petitioner and
ordered him to pay the attorney’s fees of the defendants in that
lawsuit. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
affirmed, by unpublished opinion, the judgment of the U.S.
District Court–including the imposition of sanctions. Stewart v.
Fleet Fin. Group, supra.
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