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the Court directed the parties to file briefs. Ronald Murphy has
filed no brief.
The requirement to file briefs is found in Rule 151, the
provisions of which are not permissive but mandatory. On
occasion, when a party has failed to file a brief, we have
dismissed the case with respect to those issues for which the
party bore the burden of proof, Stringer v. Commissioner, 84 T.C.
693, 704 (1985) (“tactics employed by petitioners and their
counsel were carefully calculated to prevent any meaningful
resolution of their case.”), affd. without published opinion 789
F.2d 917 (4th Cir. 1986), or we have deemed the party to have
conceded all such issues, Mock v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1987-
382 (petitioner “clearly aware” of his obligations to organize
the extensive material presented at trial and to give the Court
his views of the controlling legal authorities). More commonly,
however, we have taken note of a party’s failure to file a brief
and have gone on to decide the issues on which the party bore the
burden of proof on the basis of the stipulation of facts and its
attached exhibits, the record made at trial, and respondent’s
brief. E.g., Calcutt v. Commissioner, 84 T.C. 716 (1985);
Giouzelis v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1991-595. We shall follow
that last course here.
Ronald Murphy has failed to carry his burden of proving that
the marital payments are alimony within the meaning of section
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