Kay v. Meyers

236 P. 1064, 115 Or. 178, 1925 Ore. LEXIS 58
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedMay 4, 1925
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 236 P. 1064 (Kay v. Meyers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kay v. Meyers, 236 P. 1064, 115 Or. 178, 1925 Ore. LEXIS 58 (Or. 1925).

Opinion

BURNETT, J.

Henry F. Perkins, a resident of Union County, Oregon, died September 9, 1923, leaving an estate composed partly of property in Oregon and partly of shares of stock in corporations organized and existing under the laws of the States of New York, Missouri, Indiana, New Jersey, Minnesota and Illinois. Pending the settlement of the estate, the plaintiff, State Treasurer, applied to the County Court of Union County to determine the inheritance tax due to the state under Section 1191 et seq., Or. L. In his petition he concedes that the following deductions should be made before computing the tax:

*180 Federal estate tax ......................$11,463.93

Federal income tax due the date of decedent’s death ...................... 881.88

Oregon State Income Tax ............... 828.73

Miscellaneous claims .................... 74.26

Sums paid in settlement of damage claims against said estate .................. 10,750.00

Court costs and expenses of administration 3,822.07

Administrator’s fee ............ 10,375.00

Attorney’s fee ................. 15,000.00

Funeral charges ........................ 2,495.53

Total ..............................$55,664.40

The parties are agreed that the estate was valued at $479,147 gross. The administrator avows that the deduction should be made as already noted, but alleges that in order to secure the transfer of certificates of stock in the corporations above mentioned in the sister states he was compelled to and did pay transfer taxes levied there amounting in the aggregate to $14,696.78, and he contends that this amount should also be deducted and that the computation of inheritance tax should be made on the resulting net value of $408,785.82. There was also a dispute about the dates from which interest should be calculated. The administrator avers that there were sundry claims against the decedent for damages growing out of injuries arising from an automobile accident; that considerable litigation arose in that matter and that the claims were not settled until about October 27, 1924, when the amount to be paid was fixed at $10,750, whereas if they had been allowed in full there would have been no estate upon which an inheritance tax could have been levied. There were findings and a decree favorable to the defendant administrator and the plaintiff appeals.

*181 It is said in Section 1191, Or. L., that:

“All property within the jurisdiction of the state, and any interest therein, whether belonging to the inhabitants of this state or not, and whether tangible or intangible, which shall pass or vest * * by statutes or inheritance of this or any other state * * shall .be and is subject to a tax at the rate hereinafter specified in Section 1192, to be paid to the treasurer of the state for the use of the state.”

Section 1192, Or. L., provides in substance that after deducting an exemption of $10,000 there shall be certain rates charged upon an estate whatever which shall be in full for any inheritance tax upon property passing to a husband, wife or any lineal descendants or ascendants of the decedent A further paragraph in that section provides for a rate of taxation in addition to that already stated where the property goes to collateral kindred. Section 1193, Or. L., provides:

“All taxes imposed by this act shall take effect at and accrue upon the death of the decedent, or donor, and shall be due and payable at the expiration of eight months from such death, except as otherwise provided in this act.”

The remainder of the section has reference to devises, bequests, legacies and the like which are limited, conditioned, dependent or determinable upon the happening of any contingency or future event, on account of which the true value thereof cannot be ascertained before the tax has become due. This last proviso has no reference to the case in hand because it is one of intestacy.

As to interest, it is provided in Section 1197, Or. L., that if the tax is paid within eight months from the accruing thereof, a discount of five per cent shall be deducted therefrom.

*182 “If such tax is not paid within eight months from the accruing thereof, interest shall be charged and collected thereon at the rate of eight per centum per annum from the time the tax is due and payable, unless by reason of claims upon the estate, necessary litigation, or other unavoidable delay, such tax cannot be determined and paid as herein provided, in which case interest at the rate of six per centum per annum shall be charged upon such tax from the time from the accruing thereof until the cause of such delay is removed, after which eight per centum shall be charged.”

The matters at issue between the parties are two: 1. "Whether the amount paid as transfer taxes in the other states should be deducted from the estate here; and 2. The matter of computation of interest. The Circuit Court determined that the transfer taxes in the other states should be deducted; that the interest should be computed at the rate of 6 per cent from May 6, 1924, that being eight months after the death of the decedent,' until October 27, 1924, when the claims were settled, and that the rate from that time forward should be eight per cent.

There have been many decisions in various courts of the country on the subject of the computation of inheritance taxes, but in our judgment the questions here involved are set at rest by an opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States- delivered June 1, 1925, in the case of Frick v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (U. S.), 69 L. Ed. 692, 45 Sup. Ct. Rep. 603, not yet officially reported. In that case Henry C. Frick lived in Pennsylvania and died there, testate, December 2, 1919. He had real and personal property in Pennsylvania. He likewise had tangible real and personal property situated in the States of New York and Massachusetts. Besides all these possessions, he had shares of stock in corpora *183 tions in several states outside of Pennsylvania. The question there, as here, was: What deduction should be made? The court determined that the tangible property actually situated in the other states was not to be considered in computing the inheritance tax in Pennsylvania because the latter state had no jurisdiction beyond its boundaries and could not tax such property. Speaking of the shares of stock in the corporations, of other states and the fact that their transfer was subject by the laws of those states to a tax, the court said:

“As those states had created the corporations issuing the stocks, they had power to impose the tax and to enforce it by such means, irrespective of the decedent’s domicil and the actual situs of the stock certificates. Pennsylvania’s jurisdiction over the stocks necessarily was subordinate to that power. Therefore to bring them into the administration in that State it was essential that the tax be paid. The executors paid it out of moneys forming part of the estate in Pennsylvania and the stocks were thereby brought into the administration there.

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Related

Simmons v. South Carolina Tax Commission
132 S.E. 37 (Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1926)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
236 P. 1064, 115 Or. 178, 1925 Ore. LEXIS 58, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kay-v-meyers-or-1925.