Magoun v. Illinois Trust Savings Bank
Citation | 170 U.S. 283,42 L.Ed. 1037,18 S.Ct. 594 |
Decision Date | 25 April 1898 |
Docket Number | No. 464,464 |
Parties | MAGOUN v. ILLINOIS TRUST & SAVINGS BANK et al |
Court | United States Supreme Court |
This is a bill in equity filed in the circuit court of the United States in and for the Northern district of Illinois by Jessie Norton Torrence Magoun, a resident and citizen of New York, against the trust company, as executor of, and trustee under, the last will and testament of Joseph T. Torrence, deceased, and the county treasurer of Cook county, Ill., both residents and citizens of Illinois, to remove a cloud from the real estate devised by said decedent to the complainant, and to enjoin the first-named defendant from voluntarily paying, and the county treasurer from collecting or receiving, the inheritance tax, amounting to more than $5,000, alleged to be due upon the entire estate of said decedent, and for which the complainant's interest in said estate was contended by the county treasurer to be liable.
The bill set forth the will of the decedent; a description and valuation of the real estate and personal property left by him, amounting in all to $600,000 above his debts; and the demand of the county treasurer for the inheritance tax, which by the act in question is made a lien upon all of said property; the request of the complainant to the defendant trust company not to pay the same, and to contest the constitutionality of the act, to refrain from paying the same voluntarily and without protest, and to await the commencement of legal proceedings to enforce the same; the refusal of the trust company to comply with this request, and its threat and in- tention to pay said tax at once, voluntarily, which payment could not be recovered if said law should hereafter be declared unconstitutional.
The bill also alleged that such payment would result in waste of the estate, and would be a breach of trust on the part of said executor, to the irreparable loss an injury of the complainant; that the alleged lien of the tax clouds the title to the real property, and renders the same unmarketable; and that the act is in conflict with the provisions of the fourteenth amendment.
The trust company answered, admitting the allegations of fact in the bill, but submitting the question of the constitutionality of the law to the court, and praying to be advised of its rights and duties in the premises as executor and trustee aforesaid, and as an officer of the court.
The county treasurer denied that the act was unconstitutional, and admitted the allegations respecting the estate of the deceased, the interest of the complainant therein, the lien of the inheritance tax thereon, and the demand made therefor.
The cause was heard on bill and answers, and a decree was entered dismissing the bill, from which an appeal was prayed to this court, and allowed.
The act under which the taxes complained of were levied is entitled 'An act to tax gifts, legacies and inheritances in certain cases and to provide for the collection of the a me.' Acts 1895, p. 301. It is only necessary to quote its first and second section, which are as follows:
Two other cases were argued and submitted with this case, to wit, Drake v. Kochersperger, error to the supreme court of the state of Illinois (18 Sup. Ct. 942), and Sawyer v. Same, error to the circuit court of the United States for the Northern district of Illinois (Id. 946).
In the Drake Case the supreme court of the state of Illinois sustained the statute, as consonant with the constitution of the state. 167 Ill. 122, 47 N. E. 321.
Wm. D. Guthrie and Benjamin Harrison, for appellant.
Edward C. Akin and Thomas A. Moran, for appellees.
Mr. Justice McKENNA, after stating the case, delivered the opinion of the court.
Legacy and inheritance taxes are not new in our laws. They have existed in Pennsylvania for over 60 years, and have been enacted in other states. They are not new in the laws of other countries. In Tennessee v. Alston, 94 Tenn. 674, 30 S. W. 750, Judge Wilkes gave a short history of them, as follows: ...
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