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of a third party, upon which the Commissioner had levied to
satisfy a tax liability of the taxpayer before the taxpayer
sought bankruptcy protection. In Phelps v. United States, supra
at 377, the Supreme Court stated in dictum5 that “The levy,
therefore, gave the United States full legal right to the $38,000
levied upon as against the claim of the petitioner receiver.”
In In re Pittsburgh Penguins Partners, supra at 1302, the Court
of Appeals for the Third Circuit, applying Phelps, held that a
levy deprived the bankruptcy court of summary jurisdiction over a
bank account and observed that the Court of Appeals did not need
to decide whether the levy transferred full title to the bank
account to the Commissioner.
We disagree with petitioners’ contention that Phelps v.
United States, supra, controls the outcome of the instant case.
In Phelps, the Supreme Court decided whether the bankruptcy court
had summary jurisdiction over an intangible, not whether the levy
satisfied the liability to the Commissioner.
5See United States v. Whiting Pools, Inc., 462 U.S. 198, 210
n.18 (1983).
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