McGregor v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 3089.
| Decision Date | 02 April 1936 |
| Docket Number | No. 3089.,3089. |
| Citation | 82 F.2d 948 |
| Parties | McGREGOR v. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
O. Walker Taylor, of Boston, Mass. (Louis E. Wyman and Wyman, Starr, Booth, Wadleigh & Langdell, all of Manchester, N. H., on the brief), for petitioner for review.
Carlton Fox, Sp. Asst. to Atty. Gen. (Frank J. Wideman, Asst. Atty. Gen., and J. Louis Monarch, Sp. Asst. to Atty. Gen., on the brief), for Commissioner of Internal Revenue.
Before BINGHAM, WILSON, and MORTON, Circuit Judges.
The question is whether a transfer of property by the decedent McGregor to a trustee in January, 1928, was made in contemplation of death. Mr. McGregor died in July, 1933, five and one-half years afterwards. The Commissioner held that the transfer was made in contemplation of death and included the trust property in McGregor's estate. The Board of Tax Appeals affirmed his action, and the executor has appealed. The principal question is whether as a matter of law there was any substantial evidence in support of the Board's conclusion.
The case was submitted to the Board on the petitioner's evidence. A number of witnesses testified, including three physicians who attended the decedent, the lawyer who drew the trust deed, the housekeeper, a neighbor, the son who was executor, and the son's wife. The son's wife testified that the idea of the trust was suggested to the decedent by her; that his wife, her mother-in-law, had some time before inherited some property which had given her independent means which had been a source of great pleasure and satisfaction to her; that she had spent or given away all of this inheritance and had no independent means or income at the time when the witness spoke; that the witness told her father-in-law that he ought to make a trust fund which would give his wife (at once) some independent income of her own such as she had had and would also safeguard the property from being wasted by his other children after his death; that he replied it was a good idea and about three months later carried it out. This evidence was not in any way contradicted or impeached and appears to have been accepted as truthful by the government (in its brief) and by the Board of Tax Appeals. It is the only explanation which appears in the evidence of why the decedent made the transfers in question.
The trust instrument bears out this testimony. It established an income for Mrs. McGregor to take effect at once. She enjoyed it five and one-half years before her husband died and is still living and enjoying it. At the time when the trust was established, Mr. McGregor was in the opinion of his physicians in good health for a man of his years — he was then seventy-five. He appears to have always been rather nervous about his health and given to taking medicines; but the physicians agreed that in 1928 there was nothing serious the matter with him. There is no evidence that he...
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