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Q Do you remember accepting liability or denying
liability in that lawsuit?
A I am assuming that if I went to the attorney I
probably denied liability.
Q Okay. Didn’t we speak about a week ago or so?
A Yes.
Q And in that conversation you told me that you deny
liability?
A I don’t remember if I said that to you. I
probably said that to you, though. But you are asking
me questions that I really, in my memory since, I don’t
know. I can only tell you what I think.
Mr. Norris further testified that at the time he prepared
petitioner’s 1986 return, he believed it was accurate and correct
and that he did not have any reason to believe that there was any
error committed in the preparation of the return. When
petitioner sued Mr. Norris for malpractice in 1992, Mr. Norris
denied any liability in the malpractice proceeding. Finally,
petitioner has not alleged that prior to the preparation of the
1986 return, he informed Mr. Norris that either Peat Marwick or
the Macks asked petitioner to participate in recharacterizing a
portion of the gain from the Hammermill stock transactions
attributable to Bilzerian & Mack in order to accommodate the
Macks’ tax planning objectives. Considering these circumstances,
we do not find either petitioner or Mr. Norris credible with
respect to their testimony in support of petitioner’s position
that the $4 million omission was attributable to a mistake by Mr.
Norris. Tokarski v. Commissioner, 87 T.C. at 77; see McCann v.
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