Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, Inc. v. United States

Plaintiff sues to recover the tax assessed on 726.6 proof gallons of gin which were lost as a result of the overflowing of one of the cisterns or tanks in the cistern room of its distillery. The tank overflowed as a result of the failure of the plaintiff’s employee to change the valve on the pipes leading from the gin house to the cistern room so as to change the flow of spirits from tank; Number 15 into tank Number 14.

Prior to the transfer of the gin from the gin house to the cistern room the manufacture of gin had been fully completed, except that the proof had to be reduced by the addition…