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proceedings before the court respondent escalated the dispute by
indicating that petitioners owed almost $15,000 additional
interest and that “This was respondent’s position when trial
commenced”. As petitioners note, this contention was raised
almost 2-1/2 years after the instant case was begun, was not
embodied in any document filed with the Court, and was conceded
by respondent at the start of the trial (about 2 weeks after this
contention was raised), before the first witness was called to
the stand. This contention arose and vanished, without becoming
a part of the case; it never became part of what petitioners
asked this Court to require respondent to abate. Under these
circumstances, we do not take this evanescent contention into
account in determining whether petitioners substantially
prevailed as to the most significant issue or set of issues
presented.
Petitioners prevailed to some extent. They achieved some
success on the delay periods and some success on the error
disputes. However, these successes in the aggregate were barely
more than trivial compared to petitioners’ failures in the
litigation. As to the delay periods, petitioners prevailed with
respect to 3 months, and respondent prevailed with respect to 15-
3/4 months. Goettee I, issue I; Goettee v. Commissioner, T.C.
Memo. 2004-9, issues 2, 3, 4, and 5. As to the major errors
disputes, petitioners prevailed on one starting date; respondent
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