State v. Watkins

• Decision Date: 28 May 1909
• Docket Number: 16,188 - (20)
• Citation: 121 N.W. 390,108 Minn. 114
• Parties: STATE v. VICTOR M. WATKINS and Others
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

121 N.W. 390

108 Minn. 114

STATE v. VICTOR M. WATKINS and Others

Nos. 16,188 - (20)

Supreme Court of Minnesota

May 28, 1909

The executors of the estate of Cornelia Day Wilder Appleby deceased, were cited to show cause before the district court for Ramsey county why they should not pay taxes in the sum of $2,109.25, including penalty, assessed against them for personal property for the year 1907. They answered that the property assessed was exempt from taxation, being part of a fund devoted to charitable purposes. The matter was submitted upon stipulated facts before Hallam, J., who made findings and ordered judgment in favor of the executors. From the judgment entered pursuant to the order, the state appealed. Affirmed.

SYLLABUS

Charitable Trust -- Taxation.

The testatrix by her will gave the bulk of her estate for the endowment of a purely public charity, to be administered by a corporation to be organized and known as the "Amherst H Wilder Charity," subject to a charge on the property to secure a conditional annuity of ten thousand dollars to her husband. The corporation was duly organized, and the residue of the estate assigned in accordance with the terms of the will, by the final decree of distribution of the probate court, November 18, 1905. Her husband appealed from the decree, and it was affirmed prior to May 1, 1907, but the remittitur was not sent down until June, 1907. The property, on May 1, 1907, by reason of the appeal, was in the possession of the executors of the will, and was assessed for taxation for that year.

Held, that the property was exempt from taxation for the year 1907.

Richard D. O'Brien and Patrick J. Ryan, for the state.

Frank B. Kellogg, C. A. Severance, and Robert E. Olds, for respondents.

OPINION

START, C. J.

Appeal by the state from the judgment of the district court of the county of Ramsey, in a proceeding to collect personal property taxes, adjudging that the proceeding be dismissed for the reason that the assessment of the taxes was void, because the property which was the basis of the assessment was exempt from taxation. The facts, so far as here material, are to the effect:

Cornelia Day Wilder Appleby died testate in 1903. Her will was duly probated in the probate court of the county of Ramsey, and the respondents were duly appointed executors thereof. They accepted the trust and were acting as such on May 1, 1907, the date of the assessment in question. The testatrix, by her will, gave the greater part of her fortune for the establishment and maintenance of a public charity to be known as the "Amherst H. Wilder Charity," for the relief of the worthy poor in the city of St. Paul, subject to a charge upon the property to secure the payment of a conditional life income or annuity of ten thousand dollars to her husband, Dr. Appleby, to be paid to him semi-annually. The will, for the purpose or securing to him such annuity, gave the trustees named therein, as trustees of what for convenience of designation was named the Dr. Appleby Trust, an amount of her estate amply sufficient to produce an income to insure to Dr. Appleby the annuity which was to be paid to him so long as he should live and remain unmarried. The will, in this connection, also directed the trustees to set apart from the rest of the testate's estate securities sufficient to produce an annual income of at least ten thousand dollars. They accordingly set aside securities for such purposes of the value of $346,515, producing an annual income of $18,615. The securities so set apart were on May 1, 1907, in the possession and control of the respondents as executors.

The will further provided that, upon the termination of the Dr Appleby trust by his marriage or death, all the property given to the trustees of such trust should become a part of the testatrix's general estate, and be included as a part of the Amherst H. Wilder charity. This charity was not incorporated at the time the will was made; but the residue of the estate was given thereby to trustees, therein named, to hold it as such for a corporation directed to be organized to administer the charity. On November 18, 1905, the probate court duly made its final decree of distribution of the residue estate of the testatrix in accordance with the terms of the will. On the first day of May, 1907, the Amherst H. Wilder charity, founded by Cornelia Day Wilder Appleby, mentioned in the final decree, was and still is a corporation duly organized and created under the laws of the state of Minnesota, and is an institution of purely public charity. The residue of the estate by the final decree was assigned to such corporation for the purpose of...