Koshland v. Commissioner

11 T.C. 904, 1948 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 22
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedNovember 30, 1948
DocketDocket No. 13780
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 11 T.C. 904 (Koshland v. Commissioner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Tax Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Koshland v. Commissioner, 11 T.C. 904, 1948 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 22 (tax 1948).

Opinion

OPINION.

Kern, Judge:

The principal issue in this proceeding is whether the value of the remainder interest in the trust created and amended prior to 1924 is includible in decedent’s gross estate. One of the grounds urged by respondent for inclusion is that the transfer was one in which the decedent reserved the power- to alter and amend the trust within the meaning of section 811 (d) of the Internal Revenue Code1 and the applicable regulations.2 Petitioner seeks to meet this argument by a three-fold attack. First, it is urged that after the 1923 amendments to the trust the right to amend further encompassed only slight and trivial matters; second, that the right to amend was in conjunction with decedent’s wife, who had a substantial adverse interest in the remainder of the trust; and, third, that the law and regulations may not be constitutionally applied to pre-1924 transfers.

Petitioner’s first point is without merit. The trust instrument, as amended, contains a broad sweep of power. It was provided:

7. Power is hereby reserved during the lifetime of the said Abraham Kosh-land and given to the said Abraham Koshland and Estelle W. Koshland with the approval of the Trustees hereof at any timé in the uncontrolled discretion of the said Abraham Koshland and Estelle W. Koshland to amend this declaration of Trust. * * *

Petitioner would have us construe this language narrowly, since certain provisos appearing in the paragraph prior to amendment were deleted. Eather than an aid to petitioner’s view, these omissions can be interpreted as clothing decedent with as broad a power as it was possible to accord him. In any event, the mere fact that no limitations appear can not be said to diminish the general power granted.

None of the cases cited to us by petitioner, of which Theopold v. United States (CCA-1), 164 Fed. (2d) 404, is an example, are in point, as none contained as general a power of amendment as retained by this decedent. In the Theopold case, the power was limited to amend the trust instrument only “so that it will more clearly express my actual intentions * * The Circuit Court recognized that the trust instrument was inexpertly drawn and the trustor wished to retain the power to settle meaning. It further observed:

* * * Certainly if he had wished to retain broad powers of amendment as to substance he could have said so very simply by merely reserving a general power to alter, amend or revoke. * * *

Such a general power as referred to by the court was here retained.

Petitioner next contends that, irrespective of the scope of the power of amendment, it could not be exercised except in conjunction with a person having a substantial adverse interest. This raises the question of whether the life tenant, decedent’s wife, can be said to have a substantial adverse interest in the remainder.3 We believe that she did not.

Petitioner’s argument, with which we can not agree, is that decedent’s wife had a substantial adverse interest in the remainder, since she possessed the right during her lifetime to have corpus invaded if it became necessary to assure her the receipt of $15,000 annually, and it was to her benefit to retain her sons as remaindermen. This approach loses sight of the meaning and significance of the “substantial adverse interest” concept. See Flood v. United States (CCA-1), 133 Fed. (2d) 173; Union Trust Co. of Pittsburgh v. Driscoll (CCA-3), 138 Fed. (2d) 152; certiorari denied, 321 U. S. 764.

Petitioner relies principally upon Commissioner v. Kaplan (CCA-1), 102 Fed. (2d) 329, and seeks to distinguish David J. Lit et al., Executors, 28 B. T. A. 853; affd., 72 Fed. (2d) 551, and Estate of Charles M. Thorp, 7 T. C. 921; affd., 164 Fed. (2d) 966; certiorari denied, 333 U. S. 843. In the Kaplan case, decedent created a trust in 1923, of which he was trustee and his wife life beneficiary, with remainders over after his and his wife’s deaths to their children. The trust could be amended and revoked “by the Trustees,” assented to by the life beneficiary. Under these facts, it was held that decedent’s wife had a substantial adverse interest in the remainder, and hence it was not includible in decedent’s gross estate. Among the reasons assigned to support this conclusion was the following:

In this connection it is to be noted that Mr. Kaplan [decedent] as an individual reserved no right of revocation but rather granted these rights to the trustee then in office. This fact, if not controlling, supports the conclusion that the trust was, when made, a fully completed transfer of all interests in the trust estate. * * *

The Circuit Court distinguished the Lit case:

Lit et al. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 3 Cir., 72 F. 2d 551, relied upon by the petitioner, was a case where the remainder interest was held properly included, the trust instrument reserving in the settlor the right of revocation with the assent of the life beneficiary. Apart from the distinguishing fact that the donor expressly reserved the right of revocation, it appears, also, that the trust was created in 1927 and the Revenue Act of 1926, sec. 302 (d), 44 Stat. 71, was applied. * * *

In the Lit case, the decedent in 1927 created a trust the income of which was to be paid to his wife for life, and after the death of both remainders were given to others. The power of amendment and revocation was retained by decedent in his individual capacity, in which his wife was required to join. It was there held that the value of the life estate vested in the wife should not be included as part of decedent’s gross estate, but the remainder interest was includible; the wife was said to have a nonadverse interest in the remainder, and trust was deemed revocable within the meaning of section 302 (d) of the Revenue Act of 1926. It was there said by us:

* * * All that the settlor had to do in order to exercise this reserved power of revocation as to David Jack Lit was to do it in conjunction with Rosa L. Lit [his wife], who was in no sense an adverse interest as to the remainder interest of the trust estate. * * *
While it is true that in the Porter case the settlor of the trust was left free to exercise the limited power which he reserved, alone and without having to secure the consent of any one, whereas in the instant case the settlor must secure the written consent of his wife, Rosa L. Lit, still, as we have already stated, Rosa L. Lit had no interest in the remainder interest and as to that she was not an adverse interest and we Liink these facts bring the situation as to the remainder interest within the purview of the language of section 302 (d). * * *

The Lit case was cited approvingly by us in the Thorp case, and by the Circuit Court in its affirmance. There, decedent created a trust in 1918, reserving the power in himself to terminate the trust, cutting off the remainder interest, upon the request of the life beneficiaries. We held that the value of the transferred remainder interest was in-cludible in decedent’s gross estate under section 811 (d) (2) of the Internal Revenue Code. The Circuit Court, in its affirmance, stated:

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Koshland v. Commissioner
11 T.C. 904 (U.S. Tax Court, 1948)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
11 T.C. 904, 1948 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 22, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/koshland-v-commissioner-tax-1948.