Lumber City Corporation, f.k.a. Neiman-Reed Lumber and Supply Company, Inc. - Page 38

                                       - 38 -                                         

          addition, we found his analyses to be flawed in certain respects.           
          By way of illustration, like Mr. Brennan, Dr. Vinso used statis-            
          tical analyses of the ratios of officer compensation to sales               
          based on survey data to compute the amount of compensation to               
          which Mr. Ruf was entitled.  Rather than utilizing the ECS survey           
          data on which Mr. Brennan relied, Dr. Vinso relied on survey data           
          collected by Robert Morris Associates (RMA).  As was true of the            
          ECS survey data Mr. Brennan used, the RMA survey data Dr. Vinso             
          used appears to have been obtained from companies that were not             
          comparable to petitioner.  At trial, Dr. Vinso admitted that,               
          because no information was provided in the RMA survey data for              
          the asset range that included petitioner (i.e., $10 million to              
          $50 million), he used the ratios that were derived from companies           
          with assets ranging from $1 million to $10 million.23                       
               In summary, we have not found the analyses performed or the            
          opinions expressed by any of the experts upon whom the parties              
          rely to be persuasive or reliable.  We are unwilling to accept              
          their respective opinions regarding Mr. Ruf's compensation during           
          the years at issue.                                                         
          Character and Condition of the Company                                      
               The third category of factors identified by the Court of               


          23  We also note that some of the criticisms that Dr. Barren                
          expressed during his testimony concerning Mr. Brennan's use of              
          survey data to calculate reasonable compensation apply equally to           
          Dr. Vinso's use of survey data for that purpose.                            




Page:  Previous  28  29  30  31  32  33  34  35  36  37  38  39  40  41  42  43  44  45  46  47  Next

Last modified: May 25, 2011