Sam Goldwyn said that of oral agreements, but it holds true for written agreements the party to be charged therewith never signed. So says Judge Elizabeth A. (“Tex”) Copeland to IRS in Tibor Gyarmati, Docket No. 33671-21, filed 6/7/24.

IRS thought they had a deal, and. moves for entry of decision. Tibor claims he can prove a higher basis for the property he sold, which is a heavy feature of the deficiency at issue. Tibor is a wee bit tardy coming up with the documents he claims supports his position, which IRS says they don’t.

Tibor won’t sign the proposed stipulated decision document (PSDD).

“The PSDD Respondent emailed to Mr. Gyarmati … can only be viewed as an offer of settlement. The parties never signed a settlement stipulation or other such document delineating the terms of the settlement. Respondent never received a signed executed copy of the PSDD and no such document was filed with this Court. There is not enough in the record indicating the accepted terms of settlement that Respondent wishes for us to enforce. While we do not condone Mr. Gyarmati’s late delivery of the Exhibits to Respondent and believe such documents require significant clarification by Mr. Gyarmati, we cannot enforce a settlement in this case. We will therefore deny Respondent’s Motion and allow the parties to provide evidence of the remaining issues for decision at the scheduled remote trial setting for this case.” Order, at p. 3.

Taishoff says the best way to effectuate a settlement is to tell the parties to go try the case. A review of the procedural history, for which read the order, shows that Judge Tex Copeland wisely eschews head-banging here; that train left. If petitioner won’t sign, let petitioner try the case. And IRS again finds that short-circuitry is not a cure-all.