Corbin v. Townshend

• Decision Date: 30 April 1918
• Citation: 103 A. 647,92 Conn. 501
• Parties: CORBIN, Tax Com'r v. TOWNSHEND.
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court

103 A. 647

92 Conn. 501

CORBIN, Tax Com'r

v. TOWNSHEND.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

April 30, 1918.

Case Reserved from Superior Court, New Haven County; James H. Webb, Judge.

In the matter of the estate of Mary H. Townshend, deceased, the probate court for the district of New Haven determined the succession tax to be paid; William H. Corbin, tax commissioner, appealed to the superior court for New Haven county, and there filed reasons of appeal, to which Henry H. Townshend, administrator c. t. a., demurred and the superior court reserved all of the questions of law arising on the record for the advice of the Supreme Court of Errors. Judgment advised sustaining the demurrer.

George E. Hinman, Atty. Gen., and Charles W. Cramer, of Hartford, for plaintiff. Henry H. Townshend, of New Haven, for defendant.

WHEELER, J. Mary H. Townshend deceased in New Haven, leaving a will by which all of her property was divided between her two children. The judge of probate deducted from the appraisal value of the estate plus the gains, as a part of the expenses of the estate, the items of taxes paid various states in the United States other than Connecticut, and the federal estate tax of September 8, 1916, and computed the succession tax after making deduction of the amount of these taxes.

The tax commissioner appealed from this ruling, and sets forth among his reasons of appeal that these deductions should not have been made either as part of the administration expenses, or as claims allowed and paid, or in any other manner. The appellee demurred, principally because under section 5, chapter 332, Public Acts of 1915, these deductions were proper to be made in ascertaining the net estate for inheritance taxation purposes, either as an administration expense, or as a claim allowed, or as a loss incurred in reducing choses in action to possession.

When we were required to interpret and construe our first "Act providing for a succession tax" passed in 1897 (Pub. Acts 1897, c. 201), we held that the real estate within this state and all the personal property of a decedent domiciled in Connecticut was to be taken into account in computing the amount of the succession tax; that this tax was not a tax upon property, but upon the right or privilege of succession to the property of a decedent; that the amount of the tax was computed upon the value of the property inventoried "remaining after claims of creditors and charges of administration have been satisfied." The estate subject to the tax under the act was the net proceeds or residuum remaining for distribution or transfer in any form to the persons entitled, deducting therefrom certain exemptions and property exempt. Gallup's Appeal, 76 Conn. 617, 57 Atl. 699; Nettleton's Appeal, 76 Conn. 235, 56 Atl. 565; Hopkins' Appeal, 77 Conn. 644, 60 Atl. 657.

The Succession Act of 1915 re-enacts with few changes the act of 1897, and uses practically the language of that act, which we construed in these cases. The changes in the act of 1915 do not affect the provisions whose construction we have referred to, and we think it clear that the General Assembly intended a re-enactment of these provisions in the light of their settled construction. This we had in mind when we said of this tax:

"It is levied upon that portion, and that only, of the estate which by operation of the law and its machinery will pass to beneficiaries designated by will or statutes regulating inheritances." Sherman v. Moore, 89 Conn. 190, 193, 93 Atl. 241.

Section 6 of the act expressly provides that it is the net estate which shall be liable to this tax. And section 5 determines the method by which the net estate for taxation shall be ascertained, and specifies the deductions which may be made from the value of the inventoried estate. The 1913 amendment (Pub. Acts 1913, c. 231, § 9) definitely specified the deductions to be made, and the act of 1915, in section 5, specifies practically the same deductions. By the provisions of the act of 1915, the succession tax is measured by the value of the property passing to a beneficiary, and hence it is his share of the net estate after the claims against the estate and the charges of administration have been deducted.

Inheritance taxes, whether required to be paid to the federal government or to any other state, are not included in the deductions expressly specified in the act. The enumeration of certain items of deductions excludes all items which are neither within the express designation nor within the necessary implications of the designations made. Before inheritance taxes paid to the United States, or to any of the states other than Connecticut, can be deducted from the appraisal value in order to ascertain the net...