- 20 - In a recent opinion, the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit followed the Cotnam holding that the contingent legal fees in Alabama are not includable in a taxpayer’s gross income as part of the taxpayer’s lawsuit recovery. See Davis v. Commissioner, supra. In that case, the Court of Appeals considered respondent’s above-described alternative argument and rejected it for lack of proof that the “values of the properties exchanged” were sufficiently “unascertainable” to bring the open transaction doctrine into play. See id. at 1348. Likewise, the evidence in this case is insufficient to reach the question of whether respondent’s alternative theory would change the result. Cf. id. at 1348 n.5. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s holding in Cotnam, as followed in Davis v. Commissioner, supra, applies in this case under the Golsen rule because petitioner’s appeal of our decision would be to the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. In that regard, decisions of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit prior to September 30, 1981, are binding precedent in the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. See Bonner v. City of Prichard, 661 F.2d 1206 (11th Cir. 1981). That being the case, we hold for petitioner on this issue in accord with the holding of the Court of Appeals to which appeal of our decision would lie. Our longstanding practice, founded in Golsen v. Commissioner, 54 T.C. 742, 756-757 (1970), affd. 445Page: Previous 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011