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claims and the only reference in the record to specific
claims is found in the section of the notice of class
action entitled “Release”. That section states, in part,
as follows:
If the Court approves the proposed settlement,
and if you are a class member who did not timely
and properly request exclusion from the class,
you will release (give up) all claims against
State Farm, its parents, predecessors, and
subsidiaries that have been or could have been
asserted in this lawsuit, and all claims known
or unknown arising from the allegations of the
complaint as described in the Settlement
Agreement on file with the Court.
As mentioned above, the settlement agreement is not in the
record of this case. Nevertheless, respondent argues that
the above language “cannot, as a matter of law, include
the petitioner’s statute-barred tort claims from 1983.”
We also note that the release that petitioner may have
signed is not in the record of this case.
Furthermore, respondent argues, “the absence of any
settlement allocation between specific claims, would still
render the entire damage award taxable.” In support of
that argument, respondent cites Taggi v. United States,
835 F. Supp. 744, 746 (S.D. N.Y. 1993), affd. 35 F.3d 93
(2d Cir. 1994), and Morabito v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo.
1997-315. In both cases, the taxpayer had accepted a
payment in connection with the termination of his
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