United States v. Darwin Construction Co.

A district court ordered Darwin Construction Company (defendant) to comply with an IRS summons for documents or pay $5,000 per day of noncompliance. Darwin produced some but not all documents on the first deadline, was told six days' worth of documents were still missing, and produced the rest only after an IRS agent flagged the gap. The court found Darwin in civil contempt for the six days of noncompliance and imposed the $5,000-per-day fine. Darwin moved to set aside or reduce the fine, arguing substantial compliance and good faith, since the missing documents had simply been misfiled behind other boxes.