Bullard v. Commissioner

34 B.T.A. 243, 1936 BTA LEXIS 725
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedApril 3, 1936
DocketDocket No. 77764.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 34 B.T.A. 243 (Bullard v. Commissioner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Board of Tax Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bullard v. Commissioner, 34 B.T.A. 243, 1936 BTA LEXIS 725 (bta 1936).

Opinion

OPINION.

Van Fossan:

This proceeding was brought to redetermine a deficiency in the estate tax of the estate of Clara R. Smith, deceased, in the sum of $17,271.46.

The petitioner alleges that the respondent erred in including in the gross estate of Clara R. Smith the corpus of a trust created on February 17, 1932, consisting of securities having an aggregate value of $112,148.75.

The decedent, Clara R. Smith, was born in 1856. She married Albert Paul Smith, who died in 1890. Four children were born to the decedent and her husband: Edward A., Lora, Bessie, and a child who died in infancy. Edward A. Smith married Virginia Winslow in 1912 and died on December 16, 1928, leaving his widow surviving him. No children were born to them.

Lora Smith married Kennett Cowan, was divorced from him about 1915, and has two children: Kennett Cowan, Jr., who was about 27 years of age in 1931, and Lora Louise, who was about 24½ years of age in that year and was married to Alfred Ruehrdantz, Jr. Kennett Cowan, Jr., married Elwyn Hewett. They have one minor son. Lora Ruehrdantz and her husband have no children.

[244]*244Bessie Smith married. Sellar Bullard. Three children were born to them: Caroline Marie, Barbara Sellar, and Clara Jean, now about 23, 22, and 17 years of age, respectively.

Clara It. Smith died testate on May 24, 1933, leaving a gross estate of over $650,000. Two of her sisters had been married to officials of the American Can Co. One sister gave to the decedent a large number of shares of the preferred stock of that company. Decedent thereafter (and prior to 1927) made direct gifts of approximately 1,000 shares of that stock to her three children.

On March 3, 1927, the decedent established a trust, irrevocable on its face. By it she transferred to her son, as trustee, with the Illinois Merchants Trust Co. as successor trustee, certain shares, common and preferred, in the American Can Co., the International Harvester Co., and five other well known corporations. The largest block was 1,824 shares of American Can Co. preferred stock. The trust agreement granted to the trustee broad powers of management and complete and exclusive authority and discretion to invest and reinvest the corpus of the estate.

The trust provided that the net income from the trust estate should be paid to the trustor during her lifetime and upon her death the trustee should set aside the sum of $300,000 in property or securities in three separate trusts of $100,000 each, the income from which should be paid to the trustor’s three children during their lifetime. After the respective deaths of the two daughters the income from their trusts was to be paid to their respective children until the youngest living at the time the trust was established should attain the age of 26 years or, if deceased, then when such child, if living, would have arrived at that age, at which time the principal of each trust was to be divided equally among the children entitled thereto.

Upon the death of Edward A. Smith, decedent’s son, the income from the corpus so set aside for him was to be paid to his widow during her lifetime unless a child or children survived him. In that event the income was to be paid to such child or children until the youngest became 20 years old, when the corpus was to be divided equally among such children. If any of Edward A. Smith’s children should die before the distribution of the corpus then the income was to be paid to the heirs at law until the time set for final distribution. If Edward A. Smith died leaving no child surviving, the corpus was to be paid to the children of his sisters, subject to the intervening life estate of his widow, Virginia Smith.

The corpus remaining after establishing the three $100,000 trust funds was to be divided into three equal parts upon the death of the trustor and to be paid to her three children, if living, but if any be deceased, the share of such deceased child was to be added to the $100,000 trust fund created for that child.

[245]*245The decedent’s son Edward acted as ber business manager and adviser. She relied on bis judgment, suggestions, and advice. He died without issue on December 16, 1928. After bis death Sellar Bullard, the decedent’s son-in-law, acted in the same capacity as adviser. The decedent depended upon him and gave him her confidence. After Edward A. Smith’s death the Illinois Merchants Trust Co. became the successor trustee and upon its merger with the Continental Illinois Bank & Trust Co. the latter became the successor trustee.

In August 1929 the decedent executed a will giving- certain pecuniary bequests aggregating $63⅞000 to persons outside the immediate family and devised and bequeathed one-half of the remainder of her estate to Bessie Smith Bullard, absolutely, and the other half thereof to the Chicago Title & Trust Co. and Sellar Bullard, as trustees, with broad powers of management, to pay the net income therefrom to Lora Smith Cowan for her life and the remainder to her children when the youngest should become 25 years old.

In 1931 the decedent became dissatisfied with the trust created by her on March 3, 1927, because the trustee insisted that a part of the 1,824 shares of American Can preferred stock held in this trust be sold or exchanged for other securities in order to effect a greater diversification of investment. Due largely to her relationship to certain officers of the American Can Co., the decedent preferred to trust to the safety of the preferred stock of that corporation and to receive a higher income therefrom rather than to trust to the ability and judgment of the trustee to select the investments comprising the corpus of the trust. The daughters agreed with the decedent, and believed that if the trustee did not sell the stock before the decedent’s death, it would do so thereafter.

At the time of the execution of the trust of March 3, 1927, the decedent’s son told her that the trust was revocable and that she could do what she pleased with the trust funds and securities. However, some time after her son’s death she was advised by her attorney and her son-in-law, Sellar Bullard, that the trust was irrevocable and that, if possible, it should be terminated and a new trust executed. Her attorney also advised her that a friendly dissolution of the old trust could be made if all adult parties in interest would join in the court action which would be necessary, due to the interests of minors as future beneficiaries of the trust. Various family conferences were held and the decedent decided that the proper procedure was to recall into her control the greater part of the preferred shares of the American Can Co. which had formed a part of the corpus of the old trust and thereafter make a new trust.

[246]*246Virginia Smith, widow of the decedent’s son, Edward A. Smith, refused to consent to the cancellation and termination of the old trust. Thereupon the decedent instructed her attorney to prepare a bill praying that the trust be declared void on the ground of misrepresentation and fraud on the part of her son. Such a bill was prepared and presented to the decedent and her two daughters for approval. The daughters became alarmed because Virginia Smith would oppose any such action and the family discord would become public. The bill was never filed. The decedent’s attorney suggested that a decree declaring the trust void on the ground that certain of its provisions violated the rule against perpetuities, might be entered.

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Related

Estate of Halpern v. Commissioner
1995 T.C. Memo. 352 (U.S. Tax Court, 1995)
Housman v. Commissioner
38 B.T.A. 1007 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1938)
Bullard v. Commissioner
34 B.T.A. 243 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1936)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
34 B.T.A. 243, 1936 BTA LEXIS 725, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bullard-v-commissioner-bta-1936.