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was the settlement amount paid?" Bagley v. Commissioner, supra
at 406.
Determination of the nature of the claim is factual. Id.;
Stocks v. Commissioner, 98 T.C. 1, 11 (1992). The first
requirement is the existence of a claim based upon tort or
tortlike rights. Commissioner v. Schleier, supra at 331. The
claim must be bona fide, but not necessarily valid; i.e.,
sustainable. Sodoma v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1996-275
(citing Taggi v. United States, 35 F.3d 93, 96 (2d Cir. 1994));
Robinson v. Commissioner, supra at 126; Stocks v. Commissioner,
supra at 10. In this connection, we note that we have held that
claims for potential future personal injuries do not qualify for
exclusion under section 104(a). Roosevelt v. Commissioner, 43
T.C. 77 (1964); Starrels v. Commissioner, 35 T.C. 646 (1961),
affd. 304 F.2d 574 (9th Cir. 1962). Those holdings imply that
there must be an existing claim.
Petitioner asserts that IBM was engaging in systematic
discrimination against employees over the age of 40, that he was
forced to leave the company because of his age, that as a result
he suffered from a severe state of depression for which he was
medically treated, and that age discrimination was the primary
concern of IBM in requiring petitioner to sign the release.
Therefore, petitioner contends that IBM accepted his ITO II
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