053636P.pdf   11/08/2006  Leonard Snider  v.  United States
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  05-3636
                          and No:  05-4203
                          and No:  05-3835
                          and No:  05-3639
   Western District of Missouri   
   [PUBLISHED] [Smith, Author, with Wollman and Gruender, Circuit
   Judges]
   Civil case - Federal tax law. District court did not err in
   concluding IRS agent violated 26 U.S.C. Sec 6103 by disclosing
   protected taxpayer information; district court did not err in
   finding the government failed to establish a good-faith defense
   to the violations; release of information that taxpayers were
   under an investigation by a grand jury was violation of Section
   6103; district court's method of counting the number of disclosures
   was not erroneous; award of actual damages affirmed; to the extent
   the district court's award of punitive damages overlapped with
   statutory damages, the district court erred, and a portion of the
   punitive damages award must be vacated; award of attorneys fees
   affirmed as the government's position was not substantially justified;
   plaintiffs' argument that additional unauthorized disclosures were
   made in declarations to the Justice Department as part of this
   litigation was advanced for the first time in their cross-appeal and
   would not be considered. Judge Gruender, concurring in part and
   dissenting in part.