It’s not often that business appraisers get to claim total victory in the courts—but in the recent cases of Kohler v. IRS (U.S. Tax Court, July 25, 2006), Carraci v. IRS (U.S. Court of Appeals, July 11, 2006) and Gesoff v. IIC Industries, Inc. (Dela. Chancery Court, May 18, 2006), the experts—their attorneys and clients—must have gone home happy with the results.

In particular, the valuation reports by Kohler experts (Robert Schweihs, Roger Grabowski) and the Carraci appraiser (Allen Hahn) merited high praise and 100% endorsement from the respective courts. And in the Gesoff case, Neal Beaton’s analysis provided the general framework for the court’s consideration of a difficult, multi-national valuation; his work on specific and small company risks, however, points out the challenges that appraisers still face in the legal arena. Look for a review of all three cases in the next issue of the BVU; for a free abstract of the Gesoff opinion, click here.