Moreno v. Commissioner

28 T.C. 889, 1957 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 131
CourtUnited States Tax Court
DecidedJuly 26, 1957
DocketDocket No. 62523
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 28 T.C. 889 (Moreno 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
Moreno v. Commissioner, 28 T.C. 889, 1957 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 131 (tax 1957).

Opinion

Mulroney, Judge:

The respondent determined a deficiency in the estate tax of the Estate of Florence B. Moreno in the amount of $88,649.89. The sole issue in the case is whether the value of the insurance trust of decedent’s husband, Theodore, is includible in decedent’s estate for Federal estate tax purposes under section 811 (c) (1) (B) and (c) (1) (C), Internal Revenue Code of 1939.

FINDINGS OF FACT.

Some of the facts have been stipulated and are found accordingly.

Florence B. Moreno died at the age of 14 on May 3, 1952, and the Federal estate tax return for her estate was filed with the district director of internal revenue at St. Louis, Missouri. On December 29, 1939, Florence executed an irrevocable trust to which she transferred $125,000 face value paid-up insurance on her own life. The trust provided that if Florence died before her husband, Theodore, he would receive the income from the trust for his life with remainder to their children, grandchildren, and other heirs. It further allowed the trustees to invade the corpus of the trust to provide for Theodore’s reasonable care and comfort, or because of his illness or infirmity, or by reason of any other emergency affecting him. The St. Louis Union Trust Company, a corporation of St. Louis, Missouri, and Theodore were designated as trustees. On the same day, to wit, December 29, 1939, Theodore Moreno executed an amendment to an existing trust which he had earlier created in which he revoked all of the working sections of the original trust and substituted new provisions which were substantially identical with Florence’s trust indenture. This amendment made Theodore’s trust irrevocable; the corpus of this trust was also $12'5,000 fully paid-up insurance on his life; the provision was made that Florence would receive the net income from the trust, if she survived him, for the remainder of her life, with the remainder over to their children, grandchildren, and other heirs; and with the same provision of the rights of invasion of the corpus for her reasonable care and comfort, or because of her illness or infirmity, or by reason of any other emergency affecting her.

In both trusts there was a clause to the effect that before assigning the policies to the trustees the grantors had directed the insurance companies to use and apply all dividends toward the purchase of paid-up additional insurance, and the trustees would have no right to change said direction and no right to exercise the loan and surrender provisions of said policies.

Theodore Moreno died June 9, 1953. The two trust instruments were drawn by the same attorney; and George M. Pyle, assistant vice president of the St. Louis Union Trust Company, assisted Florence and Theodore in setting up the two trusts. Both Florence and Theodore examined both trusts before such trusts were executed and the trust officer and the insurance agent who sold them the policies advised the settlors of the trust of the savings in taxes and expenses that would result by reason of their divesting themselves of portions of their property by irrevocable trusts. Florence and Theodore filed gift tax returns in connection with the trusts and paid the gift tax due on said returns. The probate inventories of the estates of Florence and Theodore each show an appraised value of a little less than $1,000,000.

Florence’s trust served as a consideration for the amendment to Theodore’s trust executed contemporaneously with the execution of Florence’s trust and Florence was the settlor of Theodore’s trust, which consisted at her death of the unmatured policy of insurance on his life.

OPINION.

The principal question here is whether the trust of which Theodore was the settlor is includible in Florence’s estate for Federal estate tax purposes under section 811 (c) (1) (B) and (c) (1) (C), Internal Bevenue Code of 1939. These subsections provide that the gross estate of a decedent shall include any property interest that the decedent may have transferred in trust “under which he has retained for his life or for any period not ascertainable without reference to his death or for any period which does not in fact end before his death (i) the possession or enjoyment of, or the right to the income from, the property, or (ii) the right, either alone or in conjunction with any person, to designate the persons who shall possess or enjoy the property or the income therefrom; or * * * intended to take effect in possession or enjoyment at or after his death.”

Respondent argues that the unmatured policy of insurance on Theodore’s life held by that trust is includible in Florence’s estate under the doctrine of reciprocal or crossed trusts, as announced in Allan S. Lehman et al., Executors, 39 B. T. A. 17, affd. 109 F. 2d 99. In the cited case the question was under section 302 (d) of the Internal Revenue Act of 1926 providing for inclusion in a decedent’s taxable estate, of property transferred in trust to the extent that decedent had power “to alter, amend or revoke,” the enjoyment of it. The following quotations from the opinion of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit give the facts and holding (109 F. 2d at 100) :

The decedent transferred his share in trust for his brother for life, remainder to the brother’s issue, with the right in the brother to withdraw $150,000 from principal, and in exchange the brother transferred his share on similar trusts for the decedent and issue, with a similar right in the decedent to withdraw $150,000. The properties transferred were indistinguishable. The fact that the trusts were reciprocated or “crossed” is a trifle, quite lacking in practical or legal significance. * * *
*******
The decisive point is that the decedent by transfer of his share to the brother or for the brother’s use or according to the brother’s direction caused the brother to make a transfer of property in trust under which the decedent had the right to withdraw $150,000 from principal. While section 302 (d) speaks of a decedent having made a transfer of property with enjoyment subject to change by exercise of power to alter, amend or revoke in the decedent, it clearly covers a case where the decedent by paying a quid pro quo has caused another to make a transfer of property with enjoyment subject to change by exercise of such power by the decedent. * * *

The holding in the case was (109 F. 2d at 100) :

the transfer by the decedent’s brother, having been paid for and brought about by the decedent, was in substance a “transfer” by the decedent, and the property so transferred formed part of his taxable estate * * *

The question of whether the doctrine of the Lehman case will be applied — whether the trusts are crossed or reciprocal trusts — is one of fact. It is simply a question of whether one trust was made in consideration of the other. Hanauer’s Estate v. Commissioner, 149 F. 2d 857, certiorari denied 326 U. S. 770, affirming a Memorandum Opinion of this Court; Orvis v. Higgins, 180 F. 2d 537; Cole’s Estate v. Commissioner, 140 F. 2d 636, affirming a Memorandum Opinion of this Court.

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Moreno v. Commissioner
28 T.C. 889 (U.S. Tax Court, 1957)

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Bluebook (online)
28 T.C. 889, 1957 U.S. Tax Ct. LEXIS 131, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moreno-v-commissioner-tax-1957.