Chartered Accoutant's Firm v Mrs R F Braisby (H M Inspector of Taxes)

Facts

The appellant was a firm of chartered accountants. Mr Alpha and Mr Beta, described in the decision as the Other Partners, and Mr Delta entered into partnership as chartered accountants from 1 February 1983. The partners fell out in about 1990 and Mr Delta left. Litigation between the partners followed: a schedule of legal issues was said to have been determined by Master Barratt on 21 and 22 March 1994 and on 18 and 19 July 1994, the Master asked the parties to try to settle, negotiations broke down, undated heads of agreement were initialled by all parties, and the action was stayed. The firm appealed to the Special Commissioners against partnership assessments for four years of assessment from 1987-88 to 1990-91, when the preceding year basis applied, and against the allocation of those assessments among the partners; it was common ground that all earlier years had been settled by s 54 agreements. The dispute was essentially between the partners rather than with the Inspector. At a preliminary hearing the Special Commissioner gave Mr Delta, as a former partner, leave to argue seven points and directed that he could not argue whether there were different partnerships, so that Mr Gamma, who appeared in the partnership figures, was treated as a partner with a fixed share. The Other Partners and the Inspector were content with the assessments and allocation and replied to Mr Delta's points.