Opinion of the Court Commonwealth, 188 Mass. 59, 74 N. E. 287, 69 L. R. A. 599. While it has been recognized and held by the courts and by the Board of Tax Appeals that a person can be engaged in more than one trade or business, and that it is not necessary that the trade or business in which a deduction is sought forms a taxpayer's principal trade or business, it is required that his activities shall be such that they may of themselves be regarded as an occupation or business. A single isolated activity or transaction is not sufficient to constitute a business or trade. J. J. Harrington, 1 B. T. A. 11; Fridolin Pabst, 6 B. T. A. 843; Harry J. Gutman, 7 B. T. A. 500. In Dalton et al. v. Bowers, 56 Fed. (2d) 16, Judge Manton, speaking for the Circuit Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, said: By the statute, allowing the deductions and carrying over the loss for two years, Congress intended to give relief to persons engaged in an established business for losses incurred during a year of depression in order to equalize taxation in the two succeeding and more profitable years. It was not intended to apply to occasional or isolated losses. This language was quoted with approval by the Supreme Court in Dalton v. Bowers, 287 U. S. 404. The extent of the plaintiff's real estate dealings was limited to three purchases of lots in Florida, two in 1925 and one in 1926, and the disposition of such lots in 1927 at a loss of $132.895.05. The plaintiff stated in his income tax returns for the years 1926, 1927, 1928, and 1929, that his occupation was that of "banker." Prior to the date of his investments in Florida lots it appears plaintiff was in the promotion and finance business generally in connection with hotels, race track and casino properties, real estate, sugar and other business enterprises, also the purchase and sale of stocks and bonds. From early in 1926 and during the years 1927 and 1928, he held a position with the brokerage firm of Hayden, Stone & Co., of New York, receiving a salary of $25,000 for 1927 and $30,000 for 1928. Under the terms of his employment he was permitted to engage in other activities for his own individual profit and ad Syllabus vantage, which he did, and in 1927 and 1928 dealt extensively in stocks and bonds on his own and his wife's account, such transactions amounting to $1,700,000 in 1927 and $2,500,000 in 1928, upon which he realized a net profit for each of the years. We think it clear that plaintiff's investments in Florida real estate were isolated transactions in no way connected with any trade or business regularly carried on by him. The loss sustained by him on the disposition of these properties in 1927 was properly deducted from gross income for that year under section 214 (a) (5) of the Revenue Act of 1926 as a loss incurred in transactions "entered into for profit, though not connected with the trade or business." Such loss, however, was not a net loss within the meaning of the Revenue Acts of 1926 and 1928 which could be carried over and deducted from gross income in a subsequent year. The plaintiff is not entitled to recover. The petition is dismissed. It is so ordered. WHALEY, Judge; LITTLETON, Judge; GREEN, Judge; and BOOTH, Chief Justice, concur. SWEDISH-AMERICAN LINE v. THE UNITED STATES [No. 42231. Decided April 6, 1936] On the Proofs Refund of fines for transporting discased immigrants to United States; legality of action of immigration authorities.—Where the Secretary of Labor decides that certain aliens transported to the United States by the plaintiff, a steamship company, were so afflicted with disease at the time of their foreign embarkation as to be ineligible under the law for entry into the United States, and that such diseased condition might have been detected by a competent medical examination at the time of their embarkation, his decision and consequent action imposing upon the plaintiff the statutory penalties applicable in Reporter's Statement of the Case such cases are to be sustained by the court in the absence of evidence showing his action to have been arbitrary and unfair. The Reporter's statement of the case: Mr. A. Warner Parker for the plaintiff. Mr. Wm. S. Ward, with whom was Mr. Assistant Attorney General George C. Sweeney, for the defendant. This suit was brought to recover two fines, one for $1,000 plus $160.50 passage money and the other for $1,000, imposed on plaintiff by the Secretary of Labor under section 9 of the Immigration Act of 1917 as amended by section 26 of the Immigration Act of 1924, U. S. Code, title 8, section 145, for bringing to this country aliens afflicted with tuberculosis. One of the aliens arrived October 7 and the other October 24, 1926. The principal question presented is whether the decisions of the Secretary of Labor were arbitrary and illegal inasmuch as he did not submit plaintiff's protests and exhibits, consisting of certificates of examinations from physicians who had examined the aliens at port of embarkation, to the U. S. Public Health surgeons who had certified to the presence of the disease upon arrival of the aliens in the United States and that such disease might have been detected by competent medical examination at the port of embarkation. Plaintiff contends that the medical examinations made abroad were competent and satisfied the provisions of the statute and that the decisions of the Secretary on the records before him, without submitting the same to the U. S. Public Health surgeons at Ellis Island, were arbitrary and illegal. The defendant denies this and contends that the decisions of the Secretary were supported by facts before him and were therefore not arbitrary and that, in such circumstances, he was not required to submit the certificates of the physicians in Sweden to the Public Health physicians for their opinion as to the competency of the examinations at the port of embarkation. Reporter's Statement of the Case The defendant also further contends that the fines were not paid involuntarily or under protest and are therefore. not recoverable. The court, having made the foregoing introductory statement, entered special findings of fact as follows: 1. Plaintiff is a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the Kingdom of Sweden. It is the owner and operator of passenger and freight vessels which ply between ports of Sweden and ports of the United States. Two of such vessels operated by plaintiff are known as the motorship Gripsholm, and the steamship Drottningholm. The laws of the Kingdom of Sweden permit citizens and corporations of the United States the right to prosecute claims against the Kingdom of Sweden in its courts. 2. Tage W. Larsson, an alien, was brought from Goteborg, Sweden, to the United States by plaintiff on its motorship Gripsholm which sailed Sept. 5 and arrived at Ellis Island, New York, on October 4, 1926. A hearing with reference to this alien was held before a board of special inquiry at Ellis Island on October 8, 1926, as a result of which a certificate was issued by the medical officers of the United States Public Health Service as follows: Larsson, Tage W., 24, male, single, Sweden, Scand. October 8, 1926, 1:55 p. m. Present: Messrs. McCullough (chmn), O'Connor, and Jackson. Interpreter: Mordt. Tuberculosis, Insp. Walsh. SI 9, S.S. Gripsholm (Swed. Amr.) II el. Embarked at Goteborg 9/25/26. Arrived Ellis Island 10/4/26. Placed in hosp. on arrival. Medical certificate no. 3508, 10/7/26.-This is to certify that the above described person has this day been examined and is found to be afflicted with tuberculosis, pulmonary, chronic, active, which is not easily curable. In our opinion, the condition herein certified might have been detected by competent medical examination at the foreign port of embarkation. Surgeons: A. J. Ashemeyer, R. L. Beadles. The board, by unanimous vote, excluded the alien as one afflicted with tuberculosis. He was deported on the motorship Gripsholm on a sailing October 9, 1926. Reporter's Statement of the Case 3. The Commissioner of Immigration, under date of October 27, 1926, served notice on plaintiff of an intention to impose a fine in the case of Tage W. Larsson, by the following letter: You are hereby notified that the certificate of the examining surgeon, based upon a physical and mental examination of the alien whose name is shown herein, indicates that a fine should be imposed under the provisions of section 26 of the "Immigration Act" of 1924. If you desire a hearing as to whether a fine should be imposed in this instance, you will be allowed sixty days from the date of this notice for that purpose, and the vessel on which the said alien arrived will be granted clearance papers when she is ready to sail and allowed to proceed upon her outwardbound voyage upon condition that you deposit with the collector of customs at this port, prior to her sailing, the sum indicated [of $160.50, passage refund, and $1,000] as security for the payment of the said fine should it be imposed. 4. Plaintiff, on December 9, 1926 made written protest against the imposition of such fine to the Commissioner of Immigration at Ellis Island as follows: We herewith protest against the assessment of a fine of $1,000 also passage money refund of $160.50 for bringing Tage W. Larsson, certified as having tuberculosis. Section 26 of the Immigration Act of 1924 states that a line is libel when a disease occurs, that the existence of such mental or physical defect might have been detected by means of a competent medical examination. Therefore, a line is not libel if a disease is not discovered after a competent medical examination. Here is such a case that has occurred through no laxness on our part. On September 20th, 1926, Tage Larsson consulted a reputable physician, Dr. K. Nordquist, as Larsson observed that he (Larsson) was drawing blood and wished to be certain that it was not tuberculosis. After a thorough examination Dr. Nordquist declared him free from this disease, as is shown by his attached certified statement attested to by the American Consul, as Larsson had no symptoms, despite the blood, namely no fever, no tiredness, etc. Two days later, September 22d, another examination was made of Larsson, this time by our shore physician, Dr. Albert Rubenson, who gave |