Bank of America National Trust & Savings Ass'n v. Cranston

204 Cal. App. 2d 481, 22 Cal. Rptr. 427, 1962 Cal. App. LEXIS 2268
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 8, 1962
DocketCiv. No. 25742
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 204 Cal. App. 2d 481 (Bank of America National Trust & Savings Ass'n v. Cranston) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bank of America National Trust & Savings Ass'n v. Cranston, 204 Cal. App. 2d 481, 22 Cal. Rptr. 427, 1962 Cal. App. LEXIS 2268 (Cal. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinion

ASHBURN, J.

Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association, as executor of the will of Peter Tutules, deceased, appeals from order overruling objections to report of inheritance tax appraiser and fixing inheritance tax. The question presented for our determination is whether the court properly upheld an inheritance tax upon decedent’s interest as beneficiary of three Illinois land trusts; the corpus being Illinois realty, the trustee a Chicago Trust Company, but decedent being domiciled in the State of California at the time of his death. In one of the trusts he owned 100 per cent of the beneficial interests, in the others 83% per cent and 50 per cent. Inheritance tax upon these interests was paid to the State of Illinois.

Appellant argues that as a matter of constitutional law the State of California has no jurisdiction to tax because the beneficial interest in a land trust is real property situated outside the state and hence California’s taxing power does not extend to it. The exact terms of the trusts are important in determining the question now before us.

The pertinent provisions are these: “It Is Understood and Agreed between the parties hereto, and by any person or persons who may become entitled to any interest under this trust, that the interest of any beneficiary hereunder shall consist solely of a power of direction to deal with the title to said property and to manage and control said property as hereinr after provided, and the right to receive the proceeds from rentals and from mortgages, sales or other disposition of said premises, and that such right in the avails of said property shall be deemed to be personal property, and may be assigned and transferred as such; that in case of the death of any beneficiary hereunder during the existence of this trust, his or her right and interest hereunder shall, except as herein otherwise specifically provided, pass to his or her executor or [483]*483administrator, and not to his or her heirs at law; and that no beneficiary now has, and that no beneficiary hereunder at any time shall have, any right, title or interest in or to any portion of said real estate as such, either legal or equitable, but only an interest in the earnings, avails and proceeds as aforesaid. . . .

“It is understood and agreed by the parties hereto and by any person who may hereafter become a party herein that said The Trust Company of Chicago, as Trustee, will deal with said real estate only when authorized to do so in writing and that it will (notwithstanding any change in the beneficiary or beneficiaries hereunder, unless otherwise directed in writing by the beneficiaries) on the written direction of Peter Tutules or on the written direction of such person or persons as may be beneficiary or beneficiaries at the time, make deeds for, or otherwise deal with the title to said real estate; provided, however, that the trustee shall not be required to enter into any personal obligation or liability in dealing with said land or to make itself liable for any damages, costs, expenses, fines or penalties, or to deal with the title so long as any money is due to it hereunder. Otherwise, the trustee shall not be required to inquire into the propriety of any such direction.
“The beneficiary or beneficiaries hereunder shall in his, her or their own right have the management of said property and control of the selling, renting and handling thereof, and any beneficiary or his or her agent shall handle the rents thereof and the proceeds of any sales of said property, and said trustee shall not be called upon to do anything in the management or control of said property or in respect to the payment of taxes or assessments or in respect to insurance, litigation or otherwise, except on written direction as hereinabove provided, and after the payment to it of all money necessary to carry out said instructions. ... If any property remains in this trust twenty years from this date it shall be sold at public sale by the trustee on reasonable notice, and the proceeds of the sale shall be divided among those who are entitled thereto under this trust agreement.” (Emphasis added.)

A discussion of Land Trusts appearing in University of Illinois Law Forum (1955) page 655, says that the land trust is an Illinois institution, and sets forth at page 675 et seq. a standard form which contains language almost identical with that just quoted from the declaration of trust in the present instance. Indeed, the trust instruments here under consider[484]*484ation were executed upon printed forms with the blanks filled in.

Chief reliance of counsel for appellant is Senior v. Braden, 295 U.S. 422 [55 S.Ct. 800, 79 L.Ed. 1520, 100 A.L.R. 794], opinion by Mr. Justice McReynolds, involving taxability in Ohio of appellant’s beneficial interests under seven declarations of trust entitling him to a portion of the rents from parcels of land some of which were situated outside the State of Ohio. Concerning the form of the trust the court said: ‘ ‘ In each declaration the Trustee undertakes to hold and manage the property for the use and benefit of all certificate owners; to collect and distribute among them the rents; and in case of sale to make pro-rata distribution of the proceeds. While certificates and declarations vary in some details, they represent beneficial interests which, for present purposes, are not substantially unlike. Each trustee holds only one piece of land and is free from control by the beneficiaries.” (P. 430.) Relying upon Brown v. Fletcher, 235 U.S. 589 [35 S.Ct. 154, 59 L.Ed. 374], not a tax ease, it was held that the beneficiary owned an interest in the land which was the subject of the trust. Mr. Justice Stone dissented, saying in part, at page 437: "The beneficiaries have none of the incidents of legal ownership. They can neither take nor defend possession of the land. But they are clothed with rights in personam, in form both contractual and equitable, enforeible against the trustee by suit in equity for an accounting, to compel performance of the trust or to restrain breaches of it. ’ ’

In the later case of New York ex rel. Cohn v. Graves, 300 U.S. 308 [57 S.Ct. 466, 81 L.Ed. 666, 108 A.L.R. 721], which held that a state may constitutionally tax a resident upon income from rent of land located in another state, Mr. Justice Stone, speaking for the majority (McReynolds, J., and Butler, J., dissenting), said at page 316: “In Senior v. Braden, 295 U.S. 422 [55 S.Ct. 800, 79 L.Ed. 1520, 100 A.L.R. 794], supra, on which appellant relies, no question of the taxation of income was involved. By concession of counsel, on which the Court rested its opinion, if the interest taxed was ‘land or an interest in land situate within or without the state, ’ the tax was invalid, and the Court held that the interest represented by the certificates subjected to the tax was an equitable interest in the land. Here the subject of the tax is the receipt of income by a resident of the taxing state, and is within its taxing power, even though derived from property beyond its reach.” (Emphasis added.)

[485]*485Security Trust Co. v. Department of Revenue

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Related

Estate of Tutules
204 Cal. App. 2d 481 (California Court of Appeal, 1962)

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Bluebook (online)
204 Cal. App. 2d 481, 22 Cal. Rptr. 427, 1962 Cal. App. LEXIS 2268, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bank-of-america-national-trust-savings-assn-v-cranston-calctapp-1962.