- 49 - therein a claim of defamation or any other nonphysical, personal tort. See id. We do not understand petitioner to be arguing, and in any event we do not believe, that the injuries alleged in the lawsuit by the plaintiffs of lost profits, loss of business, diminution of sales, additional business expenses, a reduction in the value of the plaintiffs' business, lost plants, and a diminution of the value of the plaintiffs' nursery as a result of contamination of the soil are personal injuries. We do not understand petitioner to be claiming, and in any event we do not believe, that the cause of the injuries that the plaintiffs alleged in the lawsuit, i.e., negligent manufacture and sale of a defective product, necessarily results in a personal injury within the meaning of section 104(a)(2). Although the damage to the orchid plants of the plaintiffs that they alleged in the complaint in the lawsuit no doubt injured their business and, consequentially, their business reputation, nowhere in the complaint in the lawsuit or in the documents relating to the settlement of that lawsuit that are before us is there any claim of personal injuries, as that term is used in section 104(a)(2). See id. at 313. On the record before us, we find that the plaintiffs' claims for loss of business reputation and loss of reputation as orchid growers are not on account of personal injuries within the meaning of section 104(a)(2). See id. at 314. On that record,Page: Previous 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 Next
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