Dean Griswold Refutes Puente's Claims at Federal Court Hearing

The Law School and Dean Erwin N. Griswold denied yesterday in federal court that information provided by Dr. J. Irizzary Y. Puente was used in preparing the Harvard Law School Tax Service.

Puente, a Latin-American tax expert, is suing the University and Griswold for three million dollars, claiming that the idea of making a detailed analysis of each Latin American country's tax system for publication was original with him.

The defendants, answering Puente's suit, said the idea "has long been common knowledge and use." They said that the World Tax Series has made no use of any disclosure by Puente and disclaimed any similarity between Puente's publications and the series.

Timothy J. McInerney, attorney for Puente, claimed several weeks ago, that Harvard had sold some of the tax consultant's information. He said that he would call for a restraining order to prevent the Law School from publishing any more of Dr. Puente's work.

McInerney asserted that Puente had invited Griswold to act as an advisor in a Latin-American tax series. Griswold asked Puente for the details of his plan, McInerney claimed, and upon receiving the information told him that the Law School was no longer interested.

Several monts later, the Wall Street Journal announced that the Law School would publish a world tax service in conjunction with the United Nations and the Ford Foundation. In the February, 1955, Law School Bulletin, an article by William Sprague Barnes of the Law School revealed the essential points of Puente's plan, McInerney said.