Marble v. Commissioner

26 B.T.A. 26, 1932 BTA LEXIS 1379
CourtUnited States Board of Tax Appeals
DecidedMay 10, 1932
DocketDocket No. 40622.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 26 B.T.A. 26 (Marble 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
Marble v. Commissioner, 26 B.T.A. 26, 1932 BTA LEXIS 1379 (bta 1932).

Opinion

[27]*27OPINION.

Black :

In the stipulation of facts filed with the Board the petitioner has waived several issues and the respondent has conceded that the item of $5,000 representing the valuation of five $1,000 Eddy Paper Company bonds, included by him in the taxable estate of' petitioner, is not taxable for Federal estate tax purposes, pursuant to the provisions of section 303 (a) (2) of the 1924 Eevenue Act, having been purchased with the proceeds from the sale of $5,000 par [28]*28value Wilson and Company bonds previously taxed within five years prior to the date of death of the decedent, Edward M. Marble. The only remaining issue for decision of the Board is the following:

Did the respondent erroneously include in the gross estate of petitioner, subject to Federal estate tax, an item of $27,500 representing the value of certain real estate situate in the State of Illinois, under the provisions of section 302 of the 1924 Revenue Act ?

The applicable provisions of the Revenue Act of 1924 read as follows:

Sec. 302. The value of the gross estate of the decedent shall be determined by including the value at the time of his death of all property, real or personal, tangible or intangible, wherever situated:
(a) To the extent of the interest therein of the decedent at the time of his death which after his death is subject to the payment of the charges against bis estate and the expenses of its administration and is subject to distribution as part of his estate;
****** *

This statute must be construed conjunctively and not disjunctively; in other words, the value of the interest of the decedent is not to be included unless it is (a) “ subject to the payment of the charges against his estate ” and (b) “ the expenses of its administration,” and (c) “is subject to distribution as part of his estate” — not one, but all three provisions must be met. United States v. Field, 255 U. S. 257; Crooks v. Harrelson, 282 U. S. 55.

At common law, real estate of a decedent was not subject to the payment of his debts, nor to the payment of expenses of administering his estate. This rule of the common law is in force in Illinois, except to the extent it has been modified by statute. It has been modified to some extent, as will be seen by an examination of Smith’s Illinois Revised Statutes, ch. 3, par. 99, which is printed in the margin.1

From a reading of the article of the Illinois statutes printed in the margin it will be seen that if a decedent leaves debts and his personal property is insufficient to pay them, the executor or administrator may, by complying with the terms of the statute, secure an order of the proper court to sell real estate and out of the proceeds of the sale pay not only the debts of the decedent, but also the expenses of the administration. Upon this point there seems to be no doubt.

[29]*29Petitioner seeks to bring the instant case within the rule applied by the Supreme Court to real estate situated in the State of Missouri, in Crooks v. Harrelson, supra. But the situations are not the same. The Missouri statute modifies the common law rule only to the extent that the real estate is subject to the payment of the debts of the decedent in case decedent’s personal property proves insufficient for that purpose. It makes no provision that any part of the costs of administration can be paid out of decedent’s real estate. As to administration expenses, the common law rule in Missouri remains unchanged. All this was explained by the court in Crooks v. Harrelson, supra. As we have already pointed out, the Illinois statute not only provides for the payment of the debts of the decedent out of his real estate, where the personal property is insufficient for that purpose, but also provides for the payment of the costs of administration under the same state of circumstances. McKnelly v. Conley, 210 Ill. App. 609.

The petitioner cites the case of Fitzgerald v. Glancey, 49 Ill. 465, in support of its contention that in Illinois real estate can not be sold to pay administration expenses. In that case, the Supreme Court of Illinois held that where, at the time letters of administration are granted, there are no debts existing, and no question of distribution requiring the intervention of an administrator, the expenses of administration are the result of unnecessary interference and can not be regarded such a debt as would justify a proceeding to sell the lands to pay it. Such costs and expenses are not due by the deceased and only arise from the officious and unnecessary intermeddling of the administrator. The court viewed this case as an attempt to pervert the statute relating to the administration and settlement of deceased persons to purposes not contemplated by the statute, and refused to recognize it. The petitioner also cites Walker v. Diehl, 79 Ill. 473, in which case the Supreme Court of Illinois quoted with approval the rule laid down in Fitzgerald v. Glancey, supra, and said, “ The lands of one dying intestate descend to the heir. The administrator takes no estate or title in the lands. He has only a bare naked power to sell the lands for the payment of debts existing at the time of the death of the decedent, in case the personal property is insufficient.”

We have been cited to no Illinois case which holds that real estate can not, in any event, be sold to pay expenses of administration. The above cases cited by petitioner we do not regard as being in point.

Petitioner lays much stress on the fact that in the instant case it has been stipulated by the parties that at the time of the death of the said Edward M. Marble, on August 8, 1925, sufficient personal property was available to pay all the debts and administration expenses of his estate. From this petitioner argues that under the [30]*30facts agreed upon it would bave been impossible under the Illinois statute to bave subjected decedent’s real estate to the payment of his debts or any part of the cost of administration because there was ample personal property to meet all such charges and expenses. Therefore, argues petitioner, the rule applied by the Supreme Court in Crooks v. Harrelson, supra, should apply in the instant case. This same contention was made in First Trust Co. v. Allen, 51 Fed. (2d) 1069. In that case the decedent at the time of his death owned lands in the States of Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska. The Commissioner included the value of all such lands as a part of decedent’s estate. The executors sued for a refund in the District Court of the United States for the District of Nebraska, on the ground that none of decedent’s real estate should have been included as a part of his gross estate. The court in its decision excluded the value of the lands situated in Missouri, following Crooks v. Harrelson, supra, but approved the action of the Commissioner in including the value of lands situated in Iowa and Nebraska. In support of its decision in that respect, the court said:

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Related

Marble v. Commissioner
26 B.T.A. 26 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1932)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
26 B.T.A. 26, 1932 BTA LEXIS 1379, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marble-v-commissioner-bta-1932.