Toler's Estate, In re, 47177
Decision Date | 13 July 1959 |
Docket Number | No. 2,No. 47177,47177,2 |
Citation | 325 S.W.2d 755 |
Parties | In the Matter of the ESTATE of Edward B. TOLER. Mary D. TOLER, Appellant, v. Virginia T. WORKMAN, Louise T. Steger and Virginia T. Workman, Executrix of the Estate of Amelia B. Toler, Deceased, Respondents |
Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Hogan & Hogan, Robert E. Hogan, Michael W. Hogan, West Plains, Simmons, Perrine, Albright, Ellwood & Neff, Robert W. Neff, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, of counsel, for appellant.
H. G. Green, A. W. Landis, West Plains, for respondents.
STOCKARD, Commissioner.
On March 26, 1957, Mrs. Mary B. Toler, widow of Edward B. Toler, filed a petition in the Probate Court of Howell County, Missouri, for the issuance of letters of administration on the estate of Edward B. Toler. She alleged that her husband died intestate on February 17, 1956, that at the time of his death he was domiciled in Howell County, Missouri, and that the general nature of the property in his estate was personal and, before debts, was in excess of $20,000 in value. Respondents, the mother and two sisters of the deceased, filed a plea to the jurisdiction of the probate court on the ground that the deceased was not, at the time of his death, domiciled in Howell County, Missouri, but that his domicile was in the State of Louisiana. The Probate Judge was disqualified, and the cause was transferred to the Circuit Court of Howell County pursuant to Section 472.060, Laws of Missouri 1955, p. 385, Sec. 7, V.A.M.S. The circuit court, after a hearing in which most of the evidence consisted of documentary evidence and depositions, found that 'the domicile of Edward B. Toler, the decedent, was not in the State of Missouri at the time of his death, and * * * that this court is bound by * * * and should give full faith and credit to the succession or probate proceedings in the State of Louisiana, and * * * that under the evidence and the law, the petition for the appointment of an administrator in the State of Missouri should be and is dismissed.'
Mrs. Toler has appealed to this court from the judgment of the trial court and contends that the evidence established that her husband was domiciled in Missouri at the time of his death, and that the trial court erroneously ruled that a proper construction of Article IV. Section 1 of the Constitution of the United States required it to give full faith and credit to the succession proceedings in the State of Louisiana. In view of our conclusion as to the first contention it is unnecessary to rule on the constitutional question. But, it appears from the record that this question is not a fictitious one, and for this reason this court has jurisdiction and retains it even though, in the final disposition of the appeal, we find it unnecessary to rule thereon. McCord v. Missouri Crooked River Backwater Levee District of Ray County, Mo.Sup., 295 S.W.2d 42; Haley v. Horjul, Inc., Mo.Sup., 281 S.W.2d 832.
It is agreed that appellant married Mr. Toler on January 2, 1956, after he had been admitted to a hospital at Tupelo, Mississippi, suffering from a heart attack. He died on February 17, 1956, without leaving the hospital. There is no contention that he owned any real estate in this state, or any place, and the parties do not question the rule, as a general proposition, that the descent and distribution of his personal property shall be made according to the laws of the state of which the deceased was domiciled. See Section 473.670 ( ) and Section 473.675, par. 2, Laws of Missouri 1957, p. 860, Sec. 3, V.A.M.S.; Jaeglin v. Moakley, 236 Mo.App. 254, 151 S.W.2d 524. Under the Louisiana law the surviving widow's share in the estate of her husband who dies intestate is limited to a part of the community property, of which there was none, while under the more liberal provisions of the Missouri law she would be entitled to at least one half of his total estate after the payment of debts. Section 474.010, Laws of Missouri 1955, p. 385, Sec. 236, V.A.M.S. Following the death of Mr. Toler, respondents sought and obtained a 'judgment of possession' from the District Court of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, on the basis that Mr. Toler died domiciled there, which awarded to them as the 'sole heirs' or Mr. Toler all the personal property inventoried.
Mr. Toler was born and reared in Howell County, Missouri. He was educated in the public schools of West Plains, Missouri, and the University of Missouri. He also was graduated from the law school at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, and was admitted to the practice of law in Missouri in 1923. He was enrolled as a member of the bar of Howell County, and he maintained his enrollment there until the time of his death. However, after 1937 he did not engage in the practice of law in Howell County, or as far as shown by the record, any other place. He was a member of the Episcopal Church and the Masonic Lodge at West Plains, but he was suspended from the latter organization in 1933 for nonpayment of dues. The record does not establish his activities from 1923 to 1937, but by 1937 he was engaged in securing oil and gas leases for various oil companies. In this work he traveled widely and worked in several states other than Missouri. He lived in hotels or rented rooms and carried his personal belongings with him in his automobile. For about nineteen years before his death Mr. Toler did not physically reside in Missouri, and apparently he returned only for short periods about once a year to visit his mother or when there was 'something special like a funeral or someone ill.' He voted an absentee ballot in Howell County in a primary election in 1944, but there is no record that he voted any place thereafter.
In the early part of 1953 he moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, and lived in a rented room for most of that year. He then moved to Lafayette, Louisiana, and lived at the Evangeline Hotel where he stayed except when away on business. He did not retain the same room in the hotel when he was away, but he would leave his personal belongings with the hotel. He paid an income tax to the State of Louisiana for the years 1953 and 1954, and for each year he filed a 'Resident Individual Income Tax Return.' On each such return he listed his 'home address' as the Evangeline Hotel, and he made the answer 'yes' to the question, 'Are you a resident of Louisiana?' On the 1953 return he stated that no return had been filed in Louisiana previously because he was not then a resident. He did not file an income tax return in Missouri for 1953 or 1954. He sent his federal income tax return for 1953 to the New Orleans office and gave his home address as the Evangeline Hotel. In a letter to his attorney written in December 1955 he stated that he received a letter from the Bureau of Internal Revenue indicating that he should continue to send his federal return to the Kansas City, Missouri, office where he had been sending them prior to 1953, and he did send the 1954 return there in order not to 'scatter them around in many offices in several states.' In the 1954 tax return which he filed in the Kansas City office he listed his home address as 203 Garfield Avenue, West Plains, Missouri, which was his mother's home. However, in this return, he attached an exhibit on which he listed his income and expenses, and labeled it 'Edward B. Toler Evangeline Hotel, Lafayette, Louisiana 1954.' He then listed deductions for 'hotels away from home on business $360.38' and for 'meals away from home on business $443.20.' There is no further explanation of these deductions, but it is fairly obvious by reason of the amounts that he did not purport to deduct for all hotel and meals during the year while away from West Plains, Missouri. For 1953 and thereafter his automobile was licensed in Louisiana, and on November 28, 1955 he registered as a voter in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, and stated under oath that he was then and had been a resident of Lafayette Parish since January 3, 1953. There is no evidence that he ever voted in Louisiana, but he suffered his heart attack a month after he registered, and it would appear that probably no election was held at which he could have voted. He also maintained a checking account in a bank at Lafayette, Louisiana, but none in West Plains, Missouri, after August 1951.
After Mr. Toler was hospitalized and after he was married, he wrote his sister in Indiana, with whom his mother was then living, that 'Mary and I will buy a home in Lafayette and we want you to often come to visit us.' He also wrote the clerk at the Evangeline Hotel that he and his wife planned to make their home in Lafayette.
In November 1955, the State of Missouri made a demand upon Mr. Toler for the payment of Missouri state income tax for the year 1951. He employed counsel in West Plains, and in connection with that claim he thereafter wrote several letters to his counsel in which he stated in unequivocal terms that he was not then and had no intention of being a resident of or domiciled in the State of Missouri. In this correspondence he told his counsel to write to him at the Evangeline Hotel, and that the telephone operator at the hotel would always know where he could be found if he was not there. He also stated that he would be away from the hotel during the week working but would 'come back to Lafayette every Friday afternoon.'
Mr. Toler purchased some interests in oil, gas or mineral rights for himself. In three deeds dated in 1952, the grantee was listed as 'Edward B. Toler, West Plains, Missouri' or 'Edward B. Toler, address, West Plains, Missouri.' A deed dated April 18, 1953, named him as grantee and his 'Postoffice Address' as West Plains, Missouri. Another deed dated June 12, 1954 was made to 'E. B. Toler, a single man, never having married, address, 203 Garfield Avenue, West Plains, Missouri.'
In this nonjury case we review the record de novo and determine...
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