- 13 - Jephson v. Commissioner, supra at 1000-1001; Allen v. Commissioner, supra. In general, motions to strike pleadings have not been favored by the Federal courts. Estate of Jephson v. Commissioner, supra at 1001; Allen v. Commissioner, supra. A matter will not be stricken from a pleading unless it is clear that it can have no possible bearing upon the subject matter of the litigation. Estate of Jephson v. Commissioner, supra; Allen v. Commissioner, supra. A motion to strike should be granted only when the allegations have no possible relation to the controversy. When the court is in doubt whether under any contingency the matter may raise an issue, the motion should be denied. If the matter that is the subject of the motion involves disputed and substantial questions of law, the motion should be denied and the allegations should be determined on the merits. In addition, a motion to strike will usually not be granted unless there is a showing of prejudice to the moving party. Estate of Jephson v. Commissioner, supra at 1001 (citations omitted). Furthermore, in a case in which the taxpayer sought to strike the portion of the answer alleging an increased deficiency pursuant to section 6214(a) we stated: “the * * * [taxpayer] has no right to restrict the trial to the issues presented by him, nor does he have a right to restrict the deficiency considered by the Court to the amount placed in dispute by him.” Bruno v. Commissioner, 72 T.C. 443, 446 (1979). We concluded that therePage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011