People v. Richardson

• Court: Illinois Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: DUNN
• Citation: People v. Richardson, 269 Ill. 275, 109 N.E. 1033 (Ill. 1915)
• Decision Date: 27 October 1915
• Docket Number: No. 10140.,10140.
• Parties: PEOPLE v. RICHARDSON.

269 Ill. 275

109 N.E. 1033

PEOPLE

v.RICHARDSON.

No. 10140.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Oct. 27, 1915.

Appeal from Jefferson County Court; A. D. Webb, Judge.

Action by the People against Vol E. Richardson, administrator. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. Reversed and remanded, with directions.P. J. Lucey, Atty. Gen. (Chester H. Farthing, of East St. Louis, and Lester H. Strawn, of Springfield, of counsel), for the People.

Joel F. Watson and Conrad Schul, both of Mt. Vernon, for appellee.

DUNN, J.

Rebecca E. Galbraith died August 14, 1911, intestate, leaving no husband, descendant, ancestor, or next of kin, and leaving real estate and personal property of the value of $23,356.93. The debts and cost of administration amounted to $2,695.50. The property, under the statute, escheats to the county of Jefferson, in which the decedent lived and where the real estate is situated.

[1] The question in this case is whether there is due from the county an inheritance tax on the property. The statute imposes the tax upon the transfer of any property by will or by the intestate laws of this state to persons, institutions, or corporations not specifically exempted. It is insisted that the county does not come within the meaning of the statute, because it is an involuntary public corporation established as a part of the government of the state; that its property is not private property, but public property, and therefore exempt from taxation. The word ‘corporation,’ used in the Inheritance Tax Law imposing the tax, is broad enough to include municipal corporations of every character, and the language purports to apply to every corporation not in the statute afterwards exempted. Section 28 is the only section exempting from the tax, and that applies only when the beneficial interest in any property or its income shall pass by grant, gift, or otherwise to any hospital, religious, educational, bible, missionary, trust, scientific, benevolent, or charitable purpose, or to any trustee, bishop, or minister of any church or religious denomination, to be held and used exclusively for the religious, educational, or charitable uses and purposes of such church, religious denomination, institution, or corporation. The exemption of the property of the county from general taxation is provided by section 2 of chapter 120 of Hurd's Statutes, and it only exempts property used exclusively for the maintenance of the poor, swamp or overflowed lands unsold by the county, public buildings belonging to the county, and the grounds on which such buildings are erected, not exceeding in any case 10 acres. We have held that an inheritance tax is not a tax upon the property, but is a condition which the state imposes upon the right or privilege of succeeding to the ownership of the property, and that that portion of the estate...