Court Rejects ‘Sick Lawyer’ Excuse

Freeman, an executor of an estate, hired attorney Dennis Byrne to represent the estate. Byrne had the responsibility of handling all administration and tax works, including filing the estate tax return. However, Byrne suffered from physical and mental ailments that led to his neglecting of his duties. Byrne failed to file an estate tax return and embezzled money from the estate.

Freeman sought to have tax penalties avoided by detailing Byrne’s actions and inactions. After the IRS abated some penalties, Freeman argued more abatement was owed because Byrne’s physical and mental aliments were a reasonable cause for the the late filing. In Freeman v. United States, the court, agreeing with the IRS, found that the estate had no reasonable cause to file the tax return late, despite Byrne’s ailments.

See Robert W. Wood, ‘Sick Layer’ Excuse No Enough To Escape IRS Penalties, Forbes, Feb. 9, 2012.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.