- 9 -
to isolate the factual allocation issue that was settled and to
treat it as distinct from the legal issues relating to the water
rights that were litigated and that were not settled and each of
which involved the same underlying substantive tax adjustment.
The decision to be entered in this case on the water rights
adjustment will be entered not simply “pursuant to” a settlement,
but also “pursuant to” our holdings on the capital asset issues
(decided in favor of petitioners and not appealed) and “pursuant
to” the Court of Appeals’s holding on the legal allocation issue
that was appealed and resolved in favor of petitioners. In
particular, we note that the appellate litigation and the Court
of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s holding relating to the legal
allocation issue occurred after petitioners’ qualified offer was
made to respondent on May 12, 1999.3
Herein, because legal arguments and issues relating to the
water rights adjustment were litigated and decided by a court,
not by settlement, the judgment to be entered herein with regard
to the water rights adjustment is not to be regarded as issued
merely pursuant to a settlement, and petitioners’ qualified offer
with regard to the water rights adjustment is not limited by the
3 We do not have before us the situation where no court
determinations were made on any issues relating to a substantive
tax adjustment after a qualified offer was made and where the
pending issues and related tax adjustment were all settled
without any court determinations being obtained after the
qualified offer was made.
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011