Fine Fashions, Inc. v. United States of America, and Linde Factors Corp.

The majority accurately analyze the problem which is “to determine whether Penn has a property interest in the fund held by Linde.” To resolve the problem they concede that they “must look to state law [New York].” When they look they find “no New York cases on point” and, therefore, they are content to “think that a New York court would find that Penn had a sufficient property interest in the fund held by Linde for a tax lien to attach.” In other words, they apply nonexistent (on their hypothesis) New York law to a situation requiring such application. But just as my colleagues gaze into the…