Boscio v. Secretary of the Treasury

84 P.R. 397
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedJanuary 26, 1962
DocketNo. 12567
StatusPublished

This text of 84 P.R. 397 (Boscio v. Secretary of the Treasury) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Boscio v. Secretary of the Treasury, 84 P.R. 397 (prsupreme 1962).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Blanco Lugo

delivered the opinion of the Court.

By deed No. 50 of July 1, 1938, executed before Notary Felipe Colón Díaz, there was constituted a special mercantile partnership known as Monitor y Boscio, Sucesores, S. en C., with a capital stock of $223,179.74, of which $176,185.96 corresponded to the only managing partner, Juan Luis Bos-cio. Four years later, on September 21, 1942, the appellant and his wife, Herminia Monitor, by public deed No. 73 executed before Notary Diego Guerrero Noble, transferred, [400]*400with retroactive effect to July 1, to certain trusts constituted in favor of their children, three shares of $44,046.49 each, or a total of $132,139.47, out of the capital stock corresponding to them in the said partnership. As part of a reorganization plan, on October 31, 1942 the partnership transferred most of its assets and business to a corporation organized under the name of Monllor y Boscio, Suers., Inc. It received 4,352.83 common shares which were distributed among the partners in proportion to their share in the capital stock. Sixty per cent of the shares corresponded to trustee Enrique Petrovich Boscio.

In the years 1945 to 1951, the trustee received income as follows:

1945: $9,681.41

1946: 4, 647. 42

1947: 293.40

1948: $10,290.30

1949: 742. 84

1950: 927.32

1951: $8, 871. 38

Out of these sums the trustee distributed among the beneficiaries $4,800, $2,400, and $2,400 in 1945, 1946, and 1948. He withheld the balance of the income pursuant to the terms of the trust ,and paid the corresponding income tax., The beneficiaries also filed returns for the income received in those years.

The Secretary of the Treasury determined that the total amount of income from the trust funds were attributable to the father-grantor, and after allowing the corresponding credits for the income taxes paid by the trustee and the beneficiaries he notified him the deficiencies for the years in controversy. The trial court upheld the Secretary’s determination relying on the opinion rendered in Álvarez v. Sec. of the Treasury, 80 P.R.R. 15 (1957). To that end, it stated: “There is no evidence that, as a matter of fact and notwithstanding the instrument executed, the grantors did not continue in the possession and control of their capital in the part[401]*401nership Monllor y Boscio, Suers., the plaintiff being the only managing partner and administrator of the said capital.1 There is no evidence that, as a matter of fact, those funds were not taken out from the capital assets and otherwise invested, or that they acquired their own status in the business field under the trustee’s administration.”

I

For a better understanding for the purpose of resolving the controversy, it is necessary to make reference (1) to the pertinent terms of the trust deed, and (2) to the applicable legal provisions.

1. As stated above, the three trust funds were created by public deed by the spouses Boscio-Monllor, as grantors, “for the purpose of providing for the welfare of their children” and insuring their economic independence. The beneficiaries were the three minor children of the grantors, named Roberto, Gladys, and Juan Luis, who were then 17, 13, and 3 years old, respectively. In the event of death of one or more of the beneficiaries, it was provided that the trust fund and the accrued profits would be paid to the surviving beneficiary or beneficiaries, in equal parts, in the latter case. Enrique Petrovich Boscio, a cousin of the appellant, special partner of the former partnership, and stockholder and also employee of the present corporation, was designated trustee. It was provided that in the event of death, resignation, or disability of the said trustee, he would be substituted in the first place by grantor Boscio, and in the second place — upon the occurrence of any of the said events — by the other grantor, Mrs. Monllor Boscio.

The trusts were created with irrevocable character, the grantors reserving only the power to transfer other property [402]*402to the trust, in which case such additional property would be subject to the same terms and conditions as the original trust property.

The transfer was carried out in favor of the trustee in order that he “would administer, keep, have, hold, invest, reinvest, or otherwise dispose of the said property, as well as of any other kind of property which may be added to these trusts by transfer or otherwise subsequently made by the grantors, as well as of the rents, income, and profits yielded by these properties, including capital gains derived from the sale, conversion, disposition, liquidation, or exchange, or otherwise, of the trust property,” and was fully empowered “to invest, reinvest, sell, transfer, and exchange for other property of any kind, under such transactions, agreements, and conditions as he may deem advisable, all or part of such property, as well as to exchange, if he deems it advisable, any investment, or invest and reinvest any balance or sum received from any exchange or sale of any obligations, credits and securities or other real or personal property, corporeal or incorporeal, public or private, domestic or foreign, including common or preferred shares of private or public-service corporations, or of any property, regardless of whether the latter does not produce income gain, or profit at the time of acquisition.” It was further provided that the administration of the trusts would be carried out subject to the following terms and conditions:

“He shall invest and reinvest such trust funds and shall collect the interest, dividends, rents, profits, as well as any other class of income which the latter may yield, and shall pay such interest, dividends, rents, profits, gains, income, and expenses, as well as any principal of such trusts, keeping separate accounts of the income, transactions, expenses, and investments of each of the said trusts, in order to comply with the following terms:
“ (a) Beneficiary Roberto Boscio Monllor shall receive during his minority, out of the gains and income from his trust fund, [403]*403including the capital gains, a sum which shall not exceed $2,400 annually, which may be paid monthly up to the amount of $200, or periodically, in the discretion of the Trustee.
“The balance of the annual profits, including any capital gain, may be invested and reinvested, and shall be accumulated in the trust to be turned over to the Beneficiary, in the discretion of the Trustee, whenever the said Beneficiary contracts marriage, terminates his professional studies, or attains maj ority.
“Three years after turning over the total accrued profits, the Trustee shall also turn over to him, in addition to the trust fund, any profits which shall have accrued during these three years.
“(b) Upon attaining the age of 15 years, Beneficiary Gladys Boscio Monllor shall receive, out of the profits and income from her trust fund including the capital gains, a. sum which shall not exceed $2,400 annually, which may be paid monthly up to the sum of $200, or periodically, in the discretion of the Trustee.

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Bluebook (online)
84 P.R. 397, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boscio-v-secretary-of-the-treasury-prsupreme-1962.