Black Hardware Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

FOSTER, Circuit Judge.

In this case, the facts are not in dispute. Petitioner is engaged in the hardware business in Galveston, Tex., and owns a three story brick building. Galveston is periodically visited by storms of great violence and in 1919 a committee of business men, in conjunction, with United States engineers, recommended that the level of the entire city be raised to a height of approximately 12% feet above sea level. The plan was never put into effect but petitioner raised the lower floor of his building approximately 4% feet, which was sufficient to protect it against the highest…