Klein v. United States
| Decision Date | 13 April 1931 |
| Docket Number | No. 387,387 |
| Citation | 75 L.Ed. 996,51 S.Ct. 398,283 U.S. 231 |
| Parties | KLEIN et al. v. UNITED STATES |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Messrs. Benjamin B. Pettus and H. H. Shinnick, both of Washington, D. C., for petitioner.
The Attorney General and Mr. Charles B. Rugg, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the United States.
The petitioners are the sole surviving heirs of Solomon Klein and distributees of his estate. He died intestate, leaving, among other property, two parcels of land in Cook county, Ill., which, some fifteen months prior to his death, he had conveyed to his wife, Etta M. Klein, by deed, the habendum clauses of which are as follows:
In auditing the estate tax return of the administratrix, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue included in the gross estate the value of these two parcels of land, after deducting therefrom the value of the life estate; and the tax thereto attributable was assessed against the estate. This was paid, and a claim for refund was rejected. Thereupon petitioners sued in the Court of Claims to recover the amount. That court rendered judgment against petitioners. 42 F.(2d) 596.
The case turns upon the meaning and application of section 402 of the Revenue Act of 1918, c. 18, 40 Stat. 1057, 1097, which provides that the value of the gross estate of the decedent shall be determined by including the value at the time of his death of all property, etc.—
'(c) To the extent of any interest therein of which the decedent has at any time made a transfer, or with respect to which he has at any time created a trust, * * * intended to take effect in possession or enjoyment at or after his death. * * *'
The two clauses o the deed are quite distinct-the first conveys a life estate; the second deals with the remainder. The life estate is granted with an express reservation of the fee, which is to 'remain vested in said grantor' in the event that the grantee 'shall die prior to the decease of said grantor.' By the second clause the grantee takes the fee in the event-'and in that case only'-that she shall survive the grantor. It follows that only a life estate immediately was vested. The remainder was retained by the grantor; and whether that ever would become vested in the grantee depended upon the condition precedent that the death of the grantor happen before that of the grantee. The grant of the remainder, therefore, was contingent. See 2 Washburn, Real Property (4th Ed.) pp. 547, 548, 559, par....
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