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On May 8, 1987, the Court entered the parties' stipulated
decision as described above in docket No. 8922-87.
Petitioners did not file a notice of appeal or a timely
motion to vacate or revise the decision entered May 8, 1987.
Consequently, the decision became final on August 6,
1987, 90 days after the decision was entered. Sec. 7481(a)(1).
2. The Test Cases
During the period that petitioners' case was docketed with
the Court, 14 dockets and eight petitioners with Kersting-related
adjustments were selected as test cases for trial.
On January 12, 1987, during the same period that
Mr. DeCastro was negotiating petitioners' settlement, the test
case taxpayers filed a motion for leave to file an amendment to
their petitions to raise various evidentiary issues based upon
their contention that the search of Mr. Kersting's offices was
illegal. On January 14, 1987, the Court granted the test case
taxpayers' motion for leave to file. The evidentiary issues
raised in the amendment to petition were resolved in the Court's
opinion in Dixon I.8
8 In Dixon v. Commissioner, 90 T.C. 237 (1988), the test
case taxpayers argued that the search of Mr. Kersting's office
was illegal, that the materials seized during the search should
be suppressed in the test case proceedings, and that the burden
of proof and burden of going forward with the evidence should be
shifted to respondent. The Court rejected these contentions on
the ground that the test case taxpayers failed to establish
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