In re Knoedler's Estate

• Decision Date: 12 December 1893
• Parties: In re KNOEDLER'S ESTATE In re MYERS.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

140 N.Y. 377

35 N.E. 601

In re KNOEDLER'S ESTATE

In re MYERS.

Court of Appeals of New York.

Dec. 12, 1893.

Appeal from supreme court, general term, first department.

Petition by Roland F. Knoedler for the appraisement of certain legacies, and the assessment of collateral inheritance taxes thereon, under the last will and testament of John Knoedler, deceased. From an order of the general term (22 N. Y. Supp. 608) affirming an order of the surrogate affirming, on the formal appeal required by section 13 of the collateral inheritance act, an order theretofore made by said surrogate, confirming the reports of the appraiser appointed under said act, and assessing and fixing the cash value at the decedent's death of the property bequeathed to each of the appellants, subject to the payment of said tax, at the sum of $34,213.61, and assessing the tax due thereon from each of the appellants at the sum of $1,710.68, petitioner and others appeal. Affirmed.

B. F. Watson, for appellants.

Edgar J. Levey,(Emmet R. Olcott, of counsel,) for respondent.

MAYNARD, J.

The appellants object to the assessment of a tax under the collateral inheritance law upon that part of the estate of the testator, amounting to $65,000 and upwards, which is the proceeds of four life insurance policies, held by him at the time of his death. They insist that the value of these policies should not have been included in the appraisement made by order of the surrogate, because they were not property in such a sense as to be the subject of appraisal, or the basis of computation for the ascertainment of the tax, under chapter 713 of the Laws of 1887, which was in force when the testator died, January 8, 1891. Three of the policies were payable to the testator, his executors, administrators, and assigns, and the fourth was a paid-up policy, payable to his legal representatives. The companies who issued them were all solvent, and the conditions precedent and subsequent required to be observed in order to enforce liability thereon must be deemed to have been performed; for in April, 1891, and before the final appraisement, they were all paid in cash to the administrator with the will annexed. Indeed, the value of the policies at the time of the death of the testator cannot be the subject of review upon this appeal. The appraiser has found the value from competent evidence, the surrogate has confirmed his report, and the only objection made by the appellants to the report and the assessment of the tax was upon the ground that the amount of the policies was not taxable under the law.

Section 1, which is the only part of the act now material to be considered, provides, in substance, that all property which shall pass by will from any person seised and possessed of the same to any person or persons shall be subject to a tax at a specified rate. The burden of the appellants' effort seems to be to establish that these policies were not property of which the testator was seised and possessed at the time of his death. But it must be admitted that they were obligations to pay money at a future date, and every instrument duly executed and having a lawful consideration, which secures to the holder the payment of money at a specified time, confers upon him a right of property. The statute has declared what shall be deemed assets of the estate of a deceased person and...