2025-05-24
Today I was reviewing Commr. v. Hawaiian Philippine Co., 100 F.2d 988 (2d Cir. 1939), when I realized that I had not included this case on my Classification of Transactions chart. Hawaiian Philippine is a classic case demonstrating the tension between classifying a transaction between a service and a sale. I have added Hawaiian Philippine to the chart (see the orange box between service and sale).
An interesting aspect of the case was that Hawaiian Philippine, as the miller of the sugar, received its compensation in-kind. It did not receive cash compensation. Instead, it got to keep 45% of the sugar that it processed.
The concept of in-kind compensation (or profit) was also found in Madison Gas & Electric Co. v. Commr., 633 F.2d 512 (7th Cir. 1980). In Madison Gas, the partners in the partnership received the electricity from the jointly-owned nuclear power plant as their distributions/profit.