also_ Walsh _v._ Brewster, 255 U.S. 536 (1921).

[39] Lucas _v._ Alexander, 279 U.S. 573 (1929).

However, a litigant who, in 1915, reduced to judgment, a suit pending on
February 26, 1913 for an accounting under a patent infringement, was
unable to have treated as capital, and excluded from the taxable income
produced by such settlement, that portion of his claim which had accrued
prior to March 1, 1913. Income within the meaning of the amendment was
interpreted to be the fruit that is born of capital, not the potency of
fruition. All that the taxpayer possessed in 1913 was a contingent chose
in action which was inchoate, uncertain, and contested.--United States
_v._ Safety Car Heating & L. Co., 297 U.S. 88 (1936).

Similarly, purchasers of coal lands subject to mining leases executed
before adoption of the amendment could not successfully contend that
royalties received during 1920-1926 were payments for capital assets
sold before March 1, 1913, and hence not taxable. Such an exemption,
these purchasers argued, would have been in harmony with applicable
local law whereunder title to coal passes immediately to the lessee on
execution of such leases. To the Court, on the other hand, such leases
were not to be viewed "as a 'sale' of the mineral content of the soil"
inasmuch as minerals "may or may not be present in the leased premises
and may or may not be found [therein]. * * * If found, their abstraction
* * * is a time consuming operation and the payments made by the lessee
* * * do not normally become payable as the result of a single
transaction." The result for tax purposes would have been the same even
had the lease provided that title to the minerals would pass only "on
severance by the lessee."--Bankers Pocahontas Coal Co. _v._ Burnet, 287
U.S. 308 (1932); Burnet _v._ Harmel, 287 U.S. 103, 106-107, 111 (1932).

[40] Brushaber _v._ Union Pac. R. Co., 240 U.S. 1 (1916).

[41] MacLaughlin _v._ Alliance Ins. Co., 286 U.S. 244, 250 (1932).

[42] Helvering _v._ Independent L. Ins. Co., 292 U.S. 371, 381 (1934);
Helvering _v._ Winmill, 305 U.S. 79, 84 (1938).

[43] A tax on the rental value of property so occupied is a direct tax
on the land and must be apportioned.--Helvering _v._ Independent L. Ins.
Co., 292 U.S. 371, 378-379 (1934).

[44] 292 U.S. 381.--Expenditures incurred in the prosecution of work
under a contract for the purpose of earning profits are not capital
investments, the cost of which, if conve