In Re Estate of Drishaus

249 P. 515, 199 Cal. 369, 1926 Cal. LEXIS 283
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 16, 1926
DocketDocket No. L.A. 8469.
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 249 P. 515 (In Re Estate of Drishaus) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Estate of Drishaus, 249 P. 515, 199 Cal. 369, 1926 Cal. LEXIS 283 (Cal. 1926).

Opinion

RICHARDS, J.

This appeal has been taken by Southern Trust & Commerce Bank, administrator with the will annexed of the estate of Herman Drishaus, deceased, from an order of the superior court, in and for the county of San Diego, overruling its objection to the report of the inheritance tax appraiser and fixing the inheritance tax in said estate. The facts of the case are embraced in a stipulation of the parties hereto, from which it appears that Herman Drishaus died on May 30, 1924, in the county of San Diego, California, being a resident therein; that he left as his widow Addie Drishaus. to whom he was married in 1875 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; that thereafter the parties to the marriage removed to the state of Nebraska and from thence and in the year 1916 removed to San Diego, Cali *371 fornia, where they resided until the husband’s death; that all of the property of which he died possessed was personal property acquired while a resident of the state of Nebraska, except as to such increase therein as accrued from the unused earnings of said property during the residence of the deceased in California; that under the laws of the state of Nebraska property acquired there would be the separate property of the decedent; that the deceased left a will in which he denominated all of his property as community property; that by the report of the inheritance tax appraiser the entire property of the decedent was treated as separate property and was subjected to the inheritance tax which would be assessable against said property as the separate property of the decedent. In the trial court the administrator urged in support of its objection to the inheritance tax report making such appraisement and to the order fixing the inheritance tax in accordance therewith, that under the provisions of section 164 of the Civil Code, as amended in 1923 (Stats. 1923, p. 746), all of the property of the decedent was community property, and hence, that only one-half thereof should be taxed to the widow as the sole legatee under her husband’s will. Section 164 of the Civil Code, as so amended, reads in part as follows: “All other property acquired after marriage by either husband or wife, or both, including real property situated in this state, and personal property wherever situated, heretofore or hereafter acquired while domiciled elsewhere, which would not have been the separate property of either if acquired while domiciled in this state, is community property.” The amendment to the portion of said section above quoted, made in 1923, consisted .in the insertion of the words “heretofore or hereafter,” the same reading before said amendment as follows: “All other property acquired after marriage by either husband or wife, or both, including real property situated in this state, and personal property wherever situated, acquired while domiciled elsewhere, which would not have been the separate property of either if acquired while domiciled in this state, is community property.” (Stats. 1917, p. 827.) The effect of the amendment, if valid, would be to render the personal property of the decedent, acquired prior to the taking effect of the amendment and while a resident of the state of Nebraska, community property and as such subject *372 to the laws of this state declaring the status of husband and wife with relation to the community property during the period of their residence in this state prior to the husband’s death. The property of the decedent herein acquired by him in and under the laws of the state of Nebraska prior to the date when lie became a resident of California, and having been under the laws of the state of Nebraska his separate property, continued to be such when the decedent became a resident of this state in the year 1916, in conformity with the well-settled rule upon that subject set forth in the following uniform line of decisions: Kraemer v. Kraemer, 52 Cal. 302; Estate of Burrows, 136 Cal. 113 [68 Pac. 488]; Estate of Niccolls, 164 Cal. 368 [129 Pac. 278]; Estate of Warner, 167 Cal. 686 [140 Pac. 583]; Estate of Boselly, 178 Cal. 715 [175 Pac. 4]; Estate of Arms, 186 Cal. 554 [199 Pac. 1053]; Estate of Frees, 187 Cal. 150 [201 Pac. 112]. The decision in the last case above cited was handed down by this court in September, 1921, and it had reference to a case wherein a decedent, who had acquired certain property in the state of Wisconsin which was separate property under the laws of that state, and had subsequently removed to Illinois, under the laws of which state also personal property acquired by a decedent during his marriage would constitute his separate property, and had thereafter, and in the year 1910, removed to California, where with his wife he had resided until his death in the year 1920. This court had therefore before it the question as to the effect of the amendments to the Civil Code made in the year 1917 upon the status of the decedent’s estate in his said property and as to whether such property, by reason of said amendment to the code, had become community property. The court in determining that question considered two propositions: first, as to whether said amendments to the Civil Code made in 1917 would be constitutional in so far as it was attempted by the legislature thereby to convert the property of the husband which had theretofore been separate property into community property; and, second, as to whether the statute of 1917 should or could be given retroactive effect. In considering these propositions this court held that under the decision of Spreckels v. Spreckels, 116 Cal. 339 [58 Am. St. Rep. 170, 36 L. R. A. 497, 48 Pac. 228], the amendments to sections 164, 172 and 172a of the *373 Civil Code adopted in 1917 (Stats. 1917, pp. 827, 829) were not to Toe given retroactive effect so as to injuriously affect the vested rights of the husband in respect to his separate property owned by him prior to said amendments to the code. Following the decision in Estate of Frees, the state legislature in 1923 amended section 164 of the Civil Code in the respect above set forth, in an apparent endeavor to give retroactive effect to the provision of said section of the code, and thus avoid the effect, in so far as it was possible to do so, of our decision in Estate of Frees, supra. The legislature had also, in the year 1917, adopted those certain amendments to the Civil Code which are to be found in section 172 thereof as then amended and in section 172a thereof as added in that year thereto. In the case of Roberts v. Wehmeyer, 191 Cal. 601 [218 Pac. 22] it was held by this court that said amendments to the Civil Code could not be held to affect the vested interest of the husband in property acquired by him prior to the date of said amendments. In the case of Stewart v. Stewart, ante, p. 318 [249 Pac. 197], the principles declared in Roberts v. Welimeyer, supra, and in the long line of decisions which preceded it and which are fully considered therein were restated and reaffirmed.

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Bluebook (online)
249 P. 515, 199 Cal. 369, 1926 Cal. LEXIS 283, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-estate-of-drishaus-cal-1926.