Zand v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue Service

HILL, Senior Circuit Judge:

J.J. Zand and his wife, Eva C. Zand, 1 appeal from a 272-page Tax Court decision 2 issued by Judge Howard Dawson in 1996, regarding a ten-day trial presided over by Judge Meade Whitaker five years earlier. The tax years involved in their two consolidated cases date back to 1972-1981. The sole issue for our review is whether the Tax Court violated the taxpayers’ rights to due process and to a fair trial, and committed clear error, by reassigning their cases to successor Judge Dawson to write tbe opinion after presiding Judge Whitaker retired on permanent disability. 3