Donald DeCleene and Doris DeCleene - Page 29




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          v. Commissioner, 52 T.C. 394, 409-410 (1969); 124 Front Street,             
          Inc. v. Commissioner, 65 T.C. 6 (1975); Biggs v. Commissioner, 69           
          T.C. 905 (l978), affd. 632 F.2d 1171 (5th Cir. 1980); Fredericks            
          v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1994-27.                                        
               We preface our review of these cases by acknowledging that             
          they all reflect, to some degree, the liberal interpretation in             
          favor of taxpayers that this Court and other courts have applied            
          in cases under section 1031(a)(1).  We also observe that none of            
          these cases concerned a reverse exchange and that all of them are           
          highly fact specific and therefore distinguishable from the case            
          at hand.  Petitioners have read these cases selectively,                    
          emphasizing in each of them what the taxpayer got away with.  In            
          so doing, petitioners have lost sight of the cumulative adverse             
          effect on their position of all the facts in the case at hand,              
          which have led to our conclusion that WLC never acquired                    
          beneficial ownership of the Lawrence Drive property.  It would              
          therefore be a sterile exercise to engage in a detailed                     
          recitation of the facts of these cases and a point-by-point                 
          refutation of their applicability to the case at hand.  A couple            
          of highlights from J.H. Baird Publg. Co. v. Commissioner, supra,            
          will suffice.                                                               
               Petitioners try to make something of the fact that the Court           
          in J.H. Baird Publg. Co. v. Commissioner, 39 T.C. at 618,                   
          distinguished Bloomington Coca-Coca Bottling Co. v. Commissioner,           





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