Estate of Charles a. Boratello, Deceased, C. Norman Borgatello and Josephine E. Donnelly, Co-Executors, and C. Norman Borgatello, Successor Trustee to the Charles A. Borgatello Living Trust - Page 10




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            1973).  Under Rule 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, the                               
            trial judge is given broad discretion in his role as gatekeeper                            
            to decide what evidence is relevant, reliable, and helpful to the                          
            trier of fact.  See Desrosiers v. Flight Intl. of Fla., Inc., 156                          
            F.3d 952, 961 (9th Cir. 1998).  In the instant case, the estate's                          
            experts' reports are being offered to aid the Court in                                     
            understanding Mr. Marx's report.  They are not being offered to                            
            refute the unfavorable conclusions of the estate's experts, nor                            
            are they being offered for a matter of out-of-context conjecture                           
            or opinion which supports only one party's position, as was the                            
            case in Diego Investors IV.  Respondent gained no real tactical                            
            advantage in the instant case when Mr. Marx adopted information                            
            from the estate's experts' reports.  The use of such reports is                            
            tantamount to an informal stipulation which saves the Court time                           
            in deciding a case that could have been settled by the parties.                            
            Indeed, such information should have been incorporated into a                              
            formal stipulation.  We hold that the Marx and Cardenas reports                            
            are admitted into evidence.                                                                
            Fair Market Value of the MVS and MVN Shopping Centers                                      
                  As is customary in valuation cases, the parties in the                               
            instant case rely primarily on expert opinion evidence to support                          
            their contrary valuation positions.  In such cases, we evaluate                            
            the opinions of experts in light of the demonstrated                                       





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