Justia U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

This case stemmed from a property dispute between the parties. White Springs appealed the district court's confirmation of an arbitration award in favor of Glawson, challenging the grant of attorneys' fees, expert fees, and prejudgment interest and sought to vacate or modify the arbitration award under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), 9 U.S.C. 10, 11. The court held that the arbitration panel had the power to decide Glawson's claims for attorneys' fees and that Glawson properly submitted the issue to the panel. The court was unable to grant White Springs' request that the court review the legality of the award of expert fees and prejudgment interest on the ad valorem taxes, as the FAA did not permit it to do so. Therefore, the court found no basis to overturn any portion of the panel's final arbitration award.

Taxpayer was awarded and received a net $5.25 million qui tam payment from the government as a "relator" in two lawsuits settled against a government contractor under the False Claims Act (FCA), 31 U.S.C. 3729-3733. Taxpayer asserted that the award was not taxable. The court held that the Tax Court correctly concluded that the entire qui tam payment award to taxpayer under the FCA was includable in gross income and that taxpayer was liable for the I.R.C. 6662(a) accuracy-related penalty.

Defendant appealed a grant of summary judgment in favor of the United States when the government brought an action against him to recover a tax refund of over $300,000 that it contended was erroneously refunded. At issue was whether the district court properly granted summary judgment where defendant filed an amended tax refund in 2000 asserting that he did not realize income in 2000 from the restricted shares he received as a partner at Ernst & Young. The court held that the district court did not err in granting summary judgment where defendant realized income at the time the restricted shares were transferred into his account in 2000 when he constructively received the shares in 2000, he bore the risk of share appreciation or depreciation, and he possessed indicia of control over the shares.