River City Ranches #4 - Page 116




                                       - 54 -                                         
          reflects almost all of the 1,468 breeding sheep that were sold to           
          be registered sheep.  Yet, in his later testimony, Mr. Barnes               
          asserted that just a "majority" of the breeding sheep that RCR #4           
          purchased from him were actually registered sheep.  Petitioners             
          also offered no testimony from the employee or employees who                
          prepared the bills of sale.  Neither did petitioners or their               
          witnesses identify and name these employees.                                
               Mr. Barnes signed and issued all of these bills of sales.              
          These bills of sale presumably were important ownership documents           
          evidencing each partnership's acquisition of beneficial ownership           
          of specified individual breeding sheep, and these documents                 
          ordinarily should have been prepared with some care.  In the                
          respective testimony they gave at trial, Mr. Barnes and Mr. Hoyt            
          were silent about the numerous "errors" in these bills of sale              
          that petitioners have now acknowledged.  Indeed, Mr. Barnes and             
          Mr. Hoyt had each claimed that the bills of sale were reliable              
          and accurately reflected the specific individual sheep that had             
          been sold to the partnerships.  If, as petitioners argue, the               
          stated numbers of breeding sheep each partnership purportedly               
          purchased from Barnes Ranches truly existed, the Court then finds           
          inexplicable the conduct of Mr. Barnes and Mr. Hoyt over the                
          years and the poor records they maintained on a partnership's               
          "breeding sheep".                                                           








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