This blog is for news and other items of interest to DOJ Tax Division Alumni. Comments are welcome, but comments are being moderated to prevent inappropriate comments. Alumni aware of items of potential interest to all Alumni should email them to Jack Townsend (jack@tjtaxlaw.com).
Monday, August 31, 2015
Fran Allegra Death on August 27 (8/30/11)
Fran Allegra died on August 27. Links for information are:
Washington Post Notice - here.
Obituary Notice - here.
Guest Book - here.
I was not a close friend of Fran and never worked directly with him, but I was a big fan. I liked particularly reading his judicial opinions. I have taught a course in tax procedure for many years and among the required reading is one of his cases, Principal Life Insurance Company v. United States, 95 Fed. Cl. 786 (2010), which I think is a wonderful case for students to read toward the end of the class to pull together a lot of what I hope they have learned during the year. Also, I use the case at the beginning of the class year in my tax procedure text where I have the following quote:
“The procedural aspects of the tax laws are of overriding importance in many controversies,” one commentator has noted, “eclipsing or making moot substantive issues such as the allowance of deductions or credits, recognition or deferral of income, and methods of accounting.” Theodore D. Peyser, 627-3rd Tax Management Portfolio, “Limitations Periods, Interest on Underpayments and Overpayments, and Mitigation” at 1 (2010). At times, the questions spawned by these procedures take on an almost “metaphysical” cast, Baral v. United States, 528 U.S. 431, 436 (2000), like “when is taxable income taxed?” The ontology needed to solve such abstruse inquiries comes not from philosophical tomes, but from Chapters 63 through 66 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, which supply interfused rules mapping the contours of commonly-used, but frequently-misunderstood, tax concepts such as “assessment,” “deposit,” and “overpayment.”
[You will ntoe that he quotes Ted Peyser, who was also a Tax Division Alumnus.]
I have known Fran for many years, mostly in a different part of his life. I would like to testify to his being a wonderful and caring person. He and I are members of a group in Washington named the John Carroll Society, affiliated with the Archdiocese of Washington. The group runs a very large pro bono network of lawyers providing legal services to low income individuals, and a network of doctors providing medical services also to low income individuals. Fran was active in the group and a help to all of us. I also knew him in respect to our participation in the Federal Bar Association. Bottom line: he gave much of himself to help and care for others.
Fran was my Special Assistant during my tenure as AAG of the Tax Division. He was beside me from the day I was sworn in until the day I departed, performing a myriad of tasks with boundless energy and enthusiasm. No assignment was too small or too large; he reveled in his work and loved the Tax Division. I have many happy memories of our time together. Not only did he help me prepare for my Supreme Court argument, he helped steer me through the morass of government rules, and he even helped cater a dinner for our Tax Division colleagues. He was a great cook, and we had enormous fun planning and preparing that meal. Fran was "special" in every sense of the word.
Fran went on to have a distinguished career as a Federal Judge. He will be remembered with great respect and affection not only for his professional accomplishments but for his kindness to and care for others.
For anyone who is interested in contributing to a memorial for Fran, his wish was that such gifts be made to a 529 plan to help provide an education fund for his two sons. Contributions can be made by a check payable to the American Funds and sent to Morgan Stanley, Attention of Ward Minton, 1747 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 900, Washington, DC, 20006. Checks should carry the following notation: "For the Allegra Boys' 529 Fund."
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I was not a close friend of Fran and never worked directly with him, but I was a big fan. I liked particularly reading his judicial opinions. I have taught a course in tax procedure for many years and among the required reading is one of his cases, Principal Life Insurance Company v. United States, 95 Fed. Cl. 786 (2010), which I think is a wonderful case for students to read toward the end of the class to pull together a lot of what I hope they have learned during the year. Also, I use the case at the beginning of the class year in my tax procedure text where I have the following quote:
ReplyDelete“The procedural aspects of the tax laws are of overriding importance in many controversies,” one commentator has noted, “eclipsing or making moot substantive issues such as the allowance of deductions or credits, recognition or deferral of income, and methods of accounting.” Theodore D. Peyser, 627-3rd Tax Management Portfolio, “Limitations Periods, Interest on Underpayments and Overpayments, and Mitigation” at 1 (2010). At times, the questions spawned by these procedures take on an almost “metaphysical” cast, Baral v. United States, 528 U.S. 431, 436 (2000), like “when is taxable income taxed?” The ontology needed to solve such abstruse inquiries comes not from philosophical tomes, but from Chapters 63 through 66 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, which supply interfused rules mapping the contours of commonly-used, but frequently-misunderstood, tax concepts such as “assessment,” “deposit,” and “overpayment.”
[You will ntoe that he quotes Ted Peyser, who was also a Tax Division Alumnus.]
Fran, you will be missed.
Jack Townsend
I have known Fran for many years, mostly in a different part of his life. I would like to testify to his being a wonderful and caring person. He and I are members of a group in Washington named the John Carroll Society, affiliated with the Archdiocese of Washington. The group runs a very large pro bono network of lawyers providing legal services to low income individuals, and a network of doctors providing medical services also to low income individuals. Fran was active in the group and a help to all of us. I also knew him in respect to our participation in the Federal Bar Association. Bottom line: he gave much of himself to help and care for others.
ReplyDeleteFred Murray
Fran was my Special Assistant during my tenure as AAG of the Tax Division. He was beside me from the day I was sworn in until the day I departed, performing a myriad of tasks with boundless energy and enthusiasm. No assignment was too small or too large; he reveled in his work and loved the Tax Division. I have many happy memories of our time together. Not only did he help me prepare for my Supreme Court argument, he helped steer me through the morass of government rules, and he even helped cater a dinner for our Tax Division colleagues. He was a great cook, and we had enormous fun planning and preparing that meal. Fran was "special" in every sense of the word.
ReplyDeleteFran went on to have a distinguished career as a Federal Judge. He will be remembered with great respect and affection not only for his professional accomplishments but for his kindness to and care for others.
For anyone who is interested in contributing to a memorial for Fran, his wish was that such gifts be made to a 529 plan to help provide an education fund for his two sons. Contributions can be made by a check payable to the American Funds and sent to Morgan Stanley, Attention of Ward Minton, 1747 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 900, Washington, DC, 20006. Checks should carry the following notation: "For the Allegra Boys' 529 Fund."
Shirley Peterson