Guaranty Trust Co of New York v. Blodgett
| Decision Date | 09 January 1933 |
| Docket Number | No. 217,217 |
| Citation | 287 U.S. 509,77 L.Ed. 463,53 S.Ct. 244 |
| Parties | GUARANTY TRUST CO. OF NEW YORK v. BLODGETT, Tax Commissioner |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Appeal from the Superior Court of Fairfield County, State of connecticut.
Mr. Gregory Hankin, of Washington, D.C., for appellant.
[Argument of Counsel from page 510 intentionally omitted] Messrs. Ernest L. Averill, of Branford, Conn., and Farwell Knapp, of Hartford Conn., for appellee.
The Connecticut succession tax act of 1923 contains the following provision:
'All property and any interest therein owned by a resident of this state at the time of his decease, * * * which shall pass by will or inheritance under the laws of this state; and all gifts of such property by deed, grant or other conveyance, made in contemplation of the death of the grantor or donor, or intended to take effect in possession or enjoyment at or after the death of such grantor or donor, shall be subject to the tax herein prescribed.' Chapter 190, § 1, Pub. Acts 1923.
On December 28, 1926, while this act was in force, Harriet D. Sewell executed an irrevocable deed of trust to appellant, transferring certain securities, by which deed it was provided that the trustee collect the income and pay it to Mrs. Sewell during her life. Thereafter the income was to be paid to her husband for his life, and upon his death the trustee was directed to pay and transfer the principal of the trust absolutely to their daughter if she survived, but, if not, then to the issue of the daughter, with a gift over in default of such issue. Mrs. Sewell died May 20, 1930, domiciled in Connecticut.
The state Supreme Court held that the statute recognized the distinction between taking effect in possession or enjoyment and vesting in right, title, or interest, and intended to reach a shifting of the enjoyment of property, although such shifting followed necessarily from a prior transfer of title inter vivos; that, within the meaning and description of the statute, the transfer in question was a gift intended to take effect in possession or enjoyment at or after the death of the donor, and therefore was subject to the succession tax; and that the imposition of such tax did not offend against the Fourteenth Amendment or any other provision of the Federal Constitution. 114 Conn. 207, 158 A. 245.
Appellant first contends that, while the court below expressly upheld the tax under the act of 1923, it nevertheless gave effect to the later and more specific act of 1929 (Pub. Acts, c. 299, §§ 1 and 2), and thereby the contract impairment clause of the Federal Constitution (article 1, § 10, cl. 1) was infringed. This contention must be rejected. We are not at liberty to disregard the explicit holding of the state court as to the basis of its decision, except for convincing reasons, which here we are unable to find. Compare Columbia Ry., Gas & Electric Co. v....
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