My colleague Peter Reilly, CPA, over at Forbes, asked me to keep a lookout for the opinion in Estate of Michael J. Jackson, Deceased, John G. Branca, Co-Executor and John McClain, Co-Executor, Docket No. 17152-13, filed 7/26/18.

I’m sure Mr. Reilly, an argute schoolmate of Judge Albert G (“Scholar Al”) Lauber, is aware, as Judge Holmes stresses today, that “…the posttrial briefing runs into early next year.” Order, at p. 1. So an opinion is some distance away.

Nevertheless, the parties are unable to possess their souls in patience; hence today’s order and my reprise of a fifty-year-old commercial for a nostrum called Anacin.

The co-ex’rs, energetic types, throw into their opening post-trial brief ”… an annotated copy of the operating agreement of Sony/ATV Music Publishing. It’s [sic] origins are obscure, but petitioner argues that it is a helpful compilation of the original operating agreement to show its numerous amendments, but is not evidence. It is, however, a sort of summary exhibit, which is a type of evidence.” Order, at p. 1.

Leaving out the misplaced apostrophe, evidence doesn’t belong in a brief, however helpfully compiled.

So Judge Holmes echoes the words of the harried headachy heroine, “…the original operating agreement and all its amendments are in the record. This enables the Court to slog through the agreement as amended without the addendum’s help….” Order, at p. 1.

IRS wants this helpful compilation stricken, and Judge Holmes strikes it.

Mr. Reilly, I’ll keep looking out for the opinion, which I anticipate will arrive “(W)hen Spring comes back with rustling shade/And apple-blossoms fill the air….” as a much finer writer than I put it.