Stiles M. Harper and His Wife, Virginia L. Harper v. United States

Taxpayers appeal from the judgment of the District Court denying their claim for a refund of taxes allegedly overpaid on their 1959 return. The claim involves a casualty loss deduction pursuant to Section 165 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 and is founded on random hurricane damage caused to appellants’ five tracts of timberland. The facts are uneontested; only the amount of the deduction is in question.

Section 165 permits the taxpayer a deduction for all casualty losses, not to exceed his adjusted basis as provided in Section 1011. Although initially claiming that they were entitled to…