Benjamin N. Cardozo

“ Enough for present purposes that the disability has its roots in a principle more nearly ultimate than either waiver or estoppel, the principle that no one shall be permitted to found any claim upon his own inequity or take advantage of his own wrong. ”

“ Plainly, in such circumstances the certificate of overassessment without more does not import a promise by the Commissioner to refund the amount there certified instead of applying it as a credit upon the tax of an earlier year. At most the promise to be implied is one to refund the excess after there has been a computation of the taxes unpaid for other years and an ascertainment of the balance. ”

“ Choice between two doubts should be made in such a way as to favor the presumption of official regularity.
3. The petitioner has failed to make out the existence of an account stated for its benefit, and its claim, even if otherwise valid, is barred by limitation.
Payment of the tax for the fiscal year ending July 31, 1918, was made by the petitioner, partly in 1918, and partly in 1919. Five years from the date of payment, a statute of limitations set up a bar to a suit for the recovery of the tax on the ground of illegal assessment or collection. R.S. § 3226; 26 U.S.C. § 156 (26 USCA § 156) ”