State v. Aspaas

295 N.W. 642, 67 S.D. 552
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 24, 1940
DocketFile No. 8355
StatusPublished

This text of 295 N.W. 642 (State v. Aspaas) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Aspaas, 295 N.W. 642, 67 S.D. 552 (S.D. 1940).

Opinion

RUDOLPH, J.

This appeal involves a construction of -our inheritance tax statutes, especially SDC 57.2104 (3).

Paul A. Risvold died on the 7th day of January, 1937, a resident of Minnehaha County, South Dakota. In April, 1934, it became necessary for the deceased to make a loan upon real estate then owned by him. Risvold at the time was seventy-one years of age, and the lender required that some younger person or persons sign the notes representing such loan. This loan was to be in the amount of $22,500, and secured by land in Minnehaha County. To meet the [554]*554requirements of the lender, Iver N- Aspaas, and his son, Nils I. Aspaas, who were indirectly related to Risvold, and who were also neighbors and friends of long standing, signed these notes when the loan was made. Iver and Nils Aspaas testified that, when Mr. Risvold asked.them to sign this note, he told them they would not lose anything. The evidence discloses that, subsequent to this conversation, the three men went to the bank at Baltic and there a Mr. Hegness, in the presence of Mr. Risvold, stated “that, if Iver Aspaas and his son, Neis, would sign the notes, the property would all go to them when Mr. Risvold passed away.” Mr. Hegness further testified that Mr. Risvold had first asked him to sign these notes and had said: “Of course, when I am gone, the property will be turned over to you,” but Mr. Hegness declined because Mr. Risvold had many relatives, in the community who were able to act. Iver and Nils Aspaas thereafter signed the notes as requested. About a year after these notes were signed, and after the death of the wife of Mr. Risvold, he appeared at the Baltic bank and there stated to the assistant cashier that when Iver and Nils Aspaas signed these notes it was the understanding that they should have his property upon his death, and requested that the proper transfers be made. Thereafter deeds to' all the real estate belonging to Mr. Risvold were prepared, together with a bill of sale of all his personal property, and after the execution of these papers, they were left with the Baltic bank to be delivered to Iver and Nils Aspaas, the grantees named in these instruments, upon Risvold’s death. Mr. Risvold died about two years after the execution and delivery of these instruments, and the bank thereafter delivered the deeds and bill of sale to Iver and Nils Aspaas, who thereupon became the owners of the properties therein described. The trial court held that this property was. transferred to Iver and Nils Aspaas upon “a full, adequate, and sufficient consideration,” and was therefor not subject to an inheritance tax under the statutes of this state. The real and personal property, which Iver and Nils Aspaas received upon the death of Risvold, was of the value of $36,-925.50, and was charged with the mortgage and accrued [555]*555interest in the amount of $22,612.50, claims filed against the estate of Risvold in the amount of $1,802.17, and taxes in the sum of $380.57, leaving a total net value of $12,130.26.

The state rests its right to collect a tax upon the transfer of property above outlined on SDC 57.2104 (3), which provides:

“A tax shall be imposed upon any transfer of property, real, personal, or mixed, or any interest therein or income therefrom, in trust or otherwise, to any person, association, or corporation except a county, township, or municipal corporation, within the state, for strictly county, township, or municipal purposes, in the following cases: * * *
“(3) When the transfer is of property made by a resident * * * by deed, grant, bargain, sale, or gift, made in contemplation of the death of the grantor, vendor, or donor, or intended to take effect in possession'or enjoyment at or after such death.”

Clearly, this was a transfer of property “intended to take effect in possession or enjoyment” only after the death of Mr. Risvold. We need not, therefore, consider whether it was a transfer of property made in contemplation of death within the meaning of the statute, because whether it was or was not made in contemplation of death, it was a transfer intended to take effect in possession or enjoyment only after Risvold’s death, and, as such, comes within the meaning of the statute.

It should be noted that the statute is broad enough to include all property transferred in contemplation of death, even if transferred with adequate consideration. Many states have statutes of similar import, and the question of whether such statutes include transfers of property made with an adequate consideration has been before the courts of many states. See Annotations 7 A.L.R. 1028, and 99 A.L.R. 949. Montana and several other states have squarely held that “where the transfer of property is not to take •effect in possession or enjoyment until after the death of the transferor, whether in contemplation of death or not, it is subject to the tax” and the question of consideration is immaterial. In re Estate of Oppenheimer, 75 Mont. 186, 243 [556]*556P. 589, 592, 44 A.L.R. 1470. However, the majority of courts appear to have taken a view opposed to that set up-in the Montana decision. The Arizona court in Re Hubbs, 41 Ariz. 466, 19 P.2d 672, 674, stated the majority rule as follows:

“The purpose of the statute was not to impose an inheritance tax upon transfers of property made in the ordinary course of business and for an adequate, 'valuable consideration, but upon those made by deed, grant, bargain, sale or gift, when these instruments are intended to and do accomplish what a will would have brought about, that is, pass property to another ‘to take effect in possession or enjoyment after the death of the grantor.’ In re Wadsworth’s Estate, 100 Misc. 439, 166 N.Y.S. 716; In re Thompson’s Estate, 196 Iowa 721, 195 N. W. 250; In re Reynolds’ Estate, 169 Cal. 600, 147 P. 268, 269; Hagerty v. State ex rel. Dyer, 55 Ohio St. 613, 45 N. E. 1046, 1047; In re Wheeler’s Estate, 119 Neb. (Stoddart) 344, 228 N. W. 861; In re Kraft’s Estate (N.J. Prerog.) 103 N.J. Eq. 543, 143 A. 764; Blair v. Herold (C.C.) 150 F. 199; Herold v. Blair [3 Cir.] 158 F. 804; In re Orvis’ Estate, 223 N. Y. 1, 119 N. E. 88, 89, 3 A.L.R. 1636. The word ‘deed,’ as used in this paragraph, means a conveyance intended as a gift and does not refer to such an instrument if made in the ordinary course of business for a valuable consideration, In re Wadsworth’s Estate, supra, and the word ‘sale’, whose meaning in this connection is to be determined by the application of the maxim, ‘ “Noscitur a sociis;” * * * includes only transactions which, though in form sales, are in fact gifts.’ Hagerty v. State ex rel. Dyer, supra. In re Orvis’ Estate, supra, the Court of Appeals uses this language:
“ ‘The Legislature did not intend that a purchaser who had paid full value for the property transferred should directly or indirectly pay the tax besides. * * * The statute was not intended to restrict or burden the right of persons to transfer property in all legitimate ways and for all the usual and manifold purposes and objects of trade, commerce, and purchase, or of voluntary transfers or gifts not made in contemplation of the death of the transferor or intended to-[557]*557take effect in possession or enjoyment after such death.

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Related

In Re Hubbs
19 P.2d 672 (Arizona Supreme Court, 1933)
In Re Estate of Reynolds
147 P. 268 (California Supreme Court, 1915)
Estate of Oppenheimer
243 P. 589 (Montana Supreme Court, 1926)
In Re Kraft
143 A. 764 (New Jersey Court of Chancery, 1928)
In Re the Transfer Tax Upon the Estate of Orvis
119 N.E. 88 (New York Court of Appeals, 1918)
Matejka v. Reider
252 N.W. 878 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1934)
Medin v. Brookfield
281 N.W. 97 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1938)
In re the Estate of Wadsworth
100 Misc. 439 (New York Surrogate's Court, 1917)
State v. Steele
196 Iowa 721 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1923)
College v. Fillmore County
228 N.W. 861 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1930)
Herold v. Blair
158 F. 804 (Third Circuit, 1908)
Blair v. Herold
150 F. 199 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of New Jersey, 1907)

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Bluebook (online)
295 N.W. 642, 67 S.D. 552, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-aspaas-sd-1940.