- 14 - Techs. Trust v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1994-366, affd. without published opinion sub nom. Anderson v. Commissioner, 106 F.3d 406 (9th Cir. 1997); Ripley v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1987-114. In Trenerry v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1994-500, the taxpayer appeared pro se in a case in which the Court held that a trust was to be disregarded for tax purposes. The Court stated: Petitioner relies on two legal opinion letters of Joe Alfred Izen, Jr. (hereinafter sometimes referred to as Izen) which she had obtained from Century. Izen’s opinion letters, addressed to Century, dated September 25, 1986, discuss the legal status and tax status of contractual trust companies. Although Izen’s opinion letters are dated almost 4 years after our published opinion in Zmuda [v. Commissioner, 79 T.C. 714 (1982), affd. 731 F.2d 1417 (9th Cir. 1984)] (and more than 2 years after the published Court of Appeals affirmance), neither of his opinion letters refers to Zmuda. We note the August 15, 1984, changes to the Trenerry Trust, in which petitioner (as grantor) warned herself (as trustee) “to beware of attorneys and to avoid them whenever at all possible.” Perhaps this was one instance in which petitioner should have followed her own advice. The Izen opinion letters do not help petitioner on the evidence in the instant case. [Fn. ref. omitted.] See also Para Techs. Trust v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1992-575. Cases in which Izen was counsel also reflect chronic failure to comply with discovery orders or Court Rules. In Oelze v. Commissioner, 723 F.2d 1162 (5th Cir. 1983), the Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal of petitions where, in response to the Tax Court’s repeated orders to comply with the Commissioner’s discovery requests and admonishments that failure to comply wouldPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Next
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