14
Commissioner, 82 T.C. 413, 429-430 (1984), affd. without
published opinion 772 F.2d 910 (9th Cir. 1985).
Petitioner has only himself to blame for his failure to be
prepared for trial in Las Vegas and his failure to assemble his
records in a timely fashion.
B. Exclusion of Evidence
Petitioner offered documents into evidence at trial that he
had not exchanged or identified in writing as required by our
standing pretrial order dated October 22, 1996, or provided as he
had agreed to do in the parties' March 24, 1997, joint motion to
continue. Respondent objected to admission of the documents, and
we did not admit them into evidence. Petitioner contends that it
is unfair to exclude the evidence. We disagree.
Petitioner admits that he understood that the Court required
the parties to identify the documents in writing and exchange
them before trial. He claims that he tried to comply with the
order by bringing documents to the Las Vegas office of District
Counsel in December 1996. Respondent's counsel did not fully
examine his documents at that time, but he asked petitioner to
provide several documents early in 1997. Petitioner does not
claim that he tried to comply with this request. In March 1997,
petitioner agreed to give respondent all substantiating documents
Page: Previous 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 NextLast modified: May 25, 2011