Opinion
25904-22
09-23-2024
CHARLES GRAY & LASHAWNDA JENKINS, Petitioners v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, Respondent
ORDER AND DECISION
Mark V. Holmes, Judge.
This case was on the Court's April 9, 2024 trial calendar for Buffalo, New York. Petitioners had apparently not communicated at all with the IRS in getting the case ready for trial. And when we called the case for trial both petitioners were absent. This led the IRS to move to dismiss their case for lack of prosecution. But when we spoke with the IRS's lawyer, he said that Ms. Jenkins had seemed to list a different mailing address when she filed an amended petition.
The Court didn't notice because neither petitioner filled out the Court's change-of-address form. We commend the IRS's lawyer for trying to track down the petitioners' possible new address - it would have been easy to just dismiss this case because they didn't show up.
But Mr. Gray and Ms. Jenkins are representing themselves, and the Court wanted to be sure that their lack of communication with the IRS and absence from Court really mean that they don't care if their case is dismissed, or if it means that they moved to a different state but still want to pursue their case.
We therefore issued an order to show cause why we shouldn't grant respondent's motion to dismiss. We gave them until May 24 to respond, and asked only for a letter to the Court saying that they want their case to continue, giving their new mailing address and phone number, and stating where they would like their case to be tried.
A recent check of the Court's docket showed no response at all. It is therefore ORDERED that the Court's April 11, 2024 order to show cause is made absolute. It is also
ORDERED that respondent's March 12, 2024 motion to dismiss for lack of prosecution is granted, and this case is dismissed. It is also
ORDERED and DECIDED that there is due from petitioners a deficiency of $4,327.00 in income tax for tax year 2020.