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FINDINGS OF FACT
Some of the facts have been stipulated and are so found. The
stipulation of facts and the exhibits attached thereto are
incorporated herein by this reference.
A. Petitioners and the Bitker Partnership
Curtis Bitker and Lynn Bitker are husband and wife. Jerry
Bitker and Coleen Bitker are husband and wife. Curtis Bitker and
Jerry Bitker (petitioner husbands) are brothers. All petitioners
resided in Minnesota when the petitions in these cases were filed.
Petitioner husbands were raised on a farm in Norman County,
Minnesota, owned by their father, Ray Bitker. Petitioner husbands
and their father formed the Bitker partnership on January 1, 1979.
Each owned a one-third interest in the Bitker partnership. The
Bitker partnership’s principal business is farming; however, it
does not own any of the land that is farmed.
In 1989, petitioner husbands acquired their father’s interest
in the Bitker partnership at no cost; each then held a one-half
interest in the partnership. Although their father was no longer
a partner in the Bitker partnership, the partnership continued to
farm his land and pay him rent for the use thereof.
In 1991, Lynn Bitker and Coleen Bitker (petitioner wives) each
obtained a 20-percent interest in the Bitker partnership at no
cost. Since 1991, each petitioner husband has held a 30-percent
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Last modified: May 25, 2011