An old bugbear of mine is the lack of a single court with nationwide jurisdiction to which appeals from Tax Court may be taken, and whose decisions must be followed by Tax Court. Golsen v. Commissioner, 54 T. C. 745 (1970), aff’d on o/grds 445 F. 2d 985 (10th Cir. 1971) initially confines appellants to the decisional law of the Circuit wherein Tax Court had jurisdiction over the taxpayer when the case was tried (absent contrary agreement, which happens so rarely as to be negligible).

So STJ Daniel A. (“Yuda”) Guy can’t help out poor confused, stressed and traumatized Johnny Steven Vallejo, because Johnny can’t claim fraud and that’s all Ninth Circuit will allow to set aside the stipulated decision Johnny entered into. See my blogpost ‘Confused, Stressed and Traumatized”, 4/9/13.

But had Johnny Steven quitted the Golden State, he might have done better.

Ch STJ Peter Panuthos has a different take in Francisco & Maria Goncalves, Docket No. 9831-10S, a designated hitter filed 5/17/13.

Francisco and Maria lived in the Bay State.

“In addition to fraud on the Court, there are some other narrow exceptions to finality. Thus, this Court and some Courts of Appeals have ruled that this Court may vacate a final decision if that decision is shown to be void, or a legal nullity, for lack of jurisdiction over either the subject matter or the party. See Billingsley v. Commissioner, 868 F.2d 1081, 1084-1085 (9th Cir. 1989); Abeles v. Commissioner, 90 T.C. 103, 105-106 (1988); Brannon’s of Shawnee, Inc. v. Commissioner, 69 T.C. 999 (1978). We also have authority to correct a clerical error discovered after the decision has become final. Michaels v. Commissioner, 144 F.3d 495 (7th Cir. 1998), af[‘g T.C. Memo. 1995-294; see also Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(a). The Court is satisfied that a clerical error was made by the Court, and was discovered after the decision in this case became final. Thus, we will vacate the Order of Dismissal and Decision entered June 30, 2011.” Order, at p. 2.

Here the Court had the wrong address for the petitioners, so all the notices went astray.

Time for one size fits all.