In an earlier issue, we reported on an appellate court case involving the valuation of an owner’s one-third share in a Tennessee moonshine distillery (click here for the prior coverage). The court opinion said that the expert whose valuation the court accepted offered a modified report that eliminated the discount for lack of control (DLOC). But the expert who prevailed, Renee Harwell (Harwell Valuation Advisors), tells us: “Actually, the valuation wasn’t modified. My valuation report showed the lack of control and lack of marketability adjustments, as the entity was an LLC that filed as a sole proprietorship that represented itself as a partnership, so it was unknown what law to apply. The appellate court went with partnership.”

Harwell continues: “Why the appellate court remanded when they could have simply removed the lack of control adjustment is unknown. However, upon remand the same valuation report was used, and the adjustments pointed out to the court, which then declared the value at $35,000 without the DLOC.”

The case is Boesch v. Holeman (II), 2022 Tenn. App. LEXIS 335, and a case analysis and the full opinion can be found on the BVLaw platform.