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comparable size to the property subject to valuation. They
recognize that a determination of fair market value on the basis
of actual sales has often been said to include requirements that
a seller be knowledgeable and that the seller’s property be
comparable to the property subject to valuation. They assert,
however, that the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in
Morrissey v. Commissioner, 243 F.3d 1145, 1149 (9th Cir. 2001),
revg. Estate of Kaufman v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1999-119,
eroded these requirements to now make them irrelevant.
We disagree with petitioners’ assertion that the two prior
sales of 10 shares and 7 shares, either separately or together,
are an accurate measure of the applicable fair market value of
decedent’s 116 shares. In Morrissey, the Court of Appeals for
the Ninth Circuit held that sales of 10,000 and 6,960 shares of
stock on May 12 and June 16, 1994, respectively, at $29.70 per
share, reflected the fair market value of 46,020 shares of that
stock as of an earlier valuation date of April 14, 1994. The
Court of Appeals stated that the sellers were under no compulsion
to sell their shares and that they did so at the price that the
buyer had represented was the price listed in a recent appraisal.
The Court of Appeals stated that each seller testified at trial
that the price was fair and that the sale had not been compelled.
Contrary to petitioners’ assertion, we read nothing in
Morrissey to indicate that the Court of Appeals for the Ninth
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