- 37 -
supra; Beck v. Commissioner, 85 T.C. 557 (1985); Lax v.
Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1994-329, affd. without published
opinion 72 F.3d 123 (3d Cir. 1995); Sacks v. Commissioner, supra;
Steerman v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1993-447; Rogers v.
Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1990-619; see also the Plastics
Recycling cases cited, supra note 1.
b. Green and the Tax Return Preparers
In addition to relying ultimately on Becker, Grelsamer and
Morgan assert that they reasonably relied on Green and their
respective tax return preparers, Israelite and Braver. Neither
Braver, Green, nor Israelite (who died prior to the Grelsamers'
trial) testified at the trials in these cases. See Bresler v.
Commissioner, 65 T.C. 182, 188 (1975), Pollack v. Commissioner,
47 T.C. 92, 108 (1966), affd. 392 F.2d 409 (5th Cir. 1968), and
Wichita Terminal Elevator Co. v. Commissioner, 6 T.C. 1158, 1165
(1946), affd. 162 F.2d 513 (10th Cir. 1947) to the effect that
the failure of a party to offer available testimony gives rise to
the inference that it would have been unfavorable to his
contention.
Grelsamer and Morgan had no reason to believe that Green had
any experience or expertise in plastics materials or plastics
recycling. Green, an attorney, apparently answered Grelsamer's
general questions about the Plastics Recycling transactions, but
by the time of trial Grelsamer could not remember exactly what
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