# Morton v. Commissioner > United States Board of Tax Appeals · December 2, 1938 · 38 B.T.A. 1270 URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/4496829 ## Case - **Full name:** STERLING MORTON, v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE - **Court:** United States Board of Tax Appeals - **Decided:** December 2, 1938 - **Citations:** 38 B.T.A. 1270; 1938 BTA LEXIS 762 - **Precedential status:** Published - **Opinion:** Dissent by Black - **Judges:** Kern, Black - **Cited by:** 105 later opinions in the Frix Law Library ## Citator (automated) - No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases. - Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/4496829 ## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction) - holding that the worthlessness of an equity interest depends “not only on its current liquidating value, but also on what value it may acquire in the future through the foreseeable operations of the * * * [company]” - noting that identifiable events are “called ‘identifiable’ in that they are likely to be immediately known by everyone having -47- [ ] an interest by way of stockholdings or otherwise in the affairs of the corporation” ## Opinion text Black, dissenting: I dissent from the views expressed in the majority opinion as to issue No. 3. I think'the facts show that petitioner has proved his loss of investment in the 1242 Lake Shore. Drive Syndicate to all reasonable extent and purpose and should be allowed this loss in a computation of his net income for 1932. That he will ever recover anything from this investment seems to me so remote and improbable that it should not be the basis of disallowing the loss which petitioner claims. --- Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/4496829. Public record. Not legal advice.