Urquhart v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

125 F.2d 701, 28 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1133, 1942 U.S. App. LEXIS 4456
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 17, 1942
DocketNo. 9793
StatusPublished

This text of 125 F.2d 701 (Urquhart v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Urquhart v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 125 F.2d 701, 28 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1133, 1942 U.S. App. LEXIS 4456 (9th Cir. 1942).

Opinion

STEPHENS, Circuit Judge.

Petition to review the decision of the United States Board of Tax Appeals determining deficiencies in petitioner taxpayers’ income tax for the years 1935 and 1936.

Taxpayers are the testamentary trustees of a trust created by the will of E. H. Edwards, deceased. In computing their income taxes for the years involved, they took a deduction for certain payments which they had made to the Bank of California National Association, another trustee under the will, on the theory that they were ■ distributions to a beneficiary [702]*702within the meaning of Section 162 of the Revenue Act of 19341, c. 277, 48 Stat. 680, 26 U.S.C.A. Int.Rev.Code, § 162. The deficiency found by the Board arises from a disallowance of the deductions.

The pertinent provisions of the decree of distribution2 setting up the terms of the trust may be summarized as follows: “Unless sooner terminated, these trusts and this trust estate” shall continue until George Sterling Edwards becomes thirty years of age, when “the corpus or principal of said trust estate” is to be divided in half, and one-half vests in him and the other half is to continue in trust for Cynthia Ann Edwards. If she dies without issue prior to that time “then the other remaining half of said trust estate, that is, said entire trust shall” go to George; and if he dies without issue prior to that time his half is to continue in the trust estate “and be „ held for and distributed to the remaining beneficiaries as herein decreed”.

The decree further provided: “That it is the purpose and intention of this decree that the two branches represented by George Sterling Edwards and Cynthia Ann Edwards shall take and share said trust estate equally and that if either of said branches shall have become extinct before taking, the same shall go to and vest in the other and that George Sterling Edwards shall take his half or the whole thereof in the event of the prior death of Cynthia Ann Edwards without surviving issue when he shall have attained the age of thirty (30) years, and the surviving issue of Cynthia Ann Edwards shall take the other half thereof upon her death or the whole thereof if George Sterling Edwards shall have died without surviving issue born in lawful wedlock prior to attaining the age of thirty (30) years.”

There is a provision that “the net income of said trust estate shall go and be paid to George Sterling Edwards and Cynthia Ann Edwards, share and share alike and in the event of the death of either of them, his or her share thereof shall go and be payable to his issue born in lawful wedlock, or her issue, share and share alike by right of representation and not individually; and in the event of the death of George Sterling Edwards or Cynthia Ann Edwards during the term of these trusts without issue of lawful wedlock surviving him or issue surviving her, then his or her share of said net income shall go and be payable to the survivor of them.”

The decree continued: “That it is the purpose and intention of this decree that the two beneficial shares of this trust estate represented by George Sterling Edwards and Cynthia Ann Edwards shall share equally in the net income thereof so long as both beneficial shares are extant; and further that if one of said beneficial shares or branches should become extinct, the income thereof shall go to the other by right of representation and not individually, and that no descendant shall take while his or her ancestor shall be living.”

The trustees were “authorized and empowered to accumulate” all the share of each of the named beneficiaries in excess of $200 per month, and it is provided that ■the accumulations of income for George Sterling Edwards shall be paid and delivered to him when he shall have attained the age of thirty years, and that Cynthia Ann Edwards’ accumulated in[703]*703come shall be paid to her when she shall have reached the age of 21 years or shall have married in the meantime.

With respect to this accumulated income it is provided that: “said trustees shall hold, invest, control and manage said share or shares of said accumulated net income, if any, in the like and same manner as if the same were a part of the principal of this trust estate and pay the same to said George Sterling Edwards on his 30th birthday, and said Cynthia Ann Edwards when she shall have attained her majority or when she shall have married if prior to attaining the age of 21 years; or to their successors in interest if they should be entitled to take * * *»'

The petitioner taxpayers were named trustees of certain shares of capital stock owned by the decedent, and the Bank of California National Association was named trustee of “all the rest, residue and remainder of the trust estate”.

During the tax years in question, the taxpayers as trustees of the stock received dividends thereon. After payment of various allowable expenses they paid in the year 1935 to George Sterling Edwards $20,-600 and to Cynthia Ann Edwards $45,-800.3 They paid to the Bank of California as trustee the sum of $30,000 for accumulation for George S. Edwards. In 1936 taxpayers as trustees of the stock paid to George Sterling Edwards $32,-475.56; to Cynthia Ann Edwards $67,475.-55, and to the Bank of California for accumulation for George Sterling Edwards $35,000.

The payments to the Bank of California for accumulation for George Sterling Edwards, in the amounts of $30,000 and $35,-000 respectively are the payments for which the taxpayers claimed deductions, and with which we are here concerned.

The theory of the taxpayers is that the testator by the trust above outlined created two trusts, one for the capital stock and one for the accumulation of income; that when the taxpayers as trustees of the first trust paid the income to the second trustee they “distributed” the same to a beneficiary within the meaning of the Act.

The Commissioner, on the other hand, contends, and the Board held, that only one trust was created, committed to the care of collective trustees. It is argued alternatively that even though there were two trusts, still any “distribution” that was made was not made to a “beneficiary” within the meaning of the Act. Of course, if there was only one trust, there was no “distribution” at all, and the second point becomes unnecessary to decide.

In Lynchburg Trust & Savings Bank v. Commissioner, 4 Cir., 1934, 68 F.2d 356, certiorari denied Helvering v. Lynchburg Trust & Savings Bank, 292 U.S. 640, 54 S.Ct. 773, 78 L.Ed. 1492, which is the chief reliance of the taxpayers in this connection, the will creating the testamentary trust provided that the income in question was to be paid over to the grandchildren as it was earned, with a further provision that the trustees were authorized to invest part of such income for said grandchildren. There was a specific provision that the accumulated income might be used in the improvement of the property of the grandchildren. The Court in construing the will found it to provide that the accumulated income was no longer held in trust for the purposes set out in the will in regard to the residue.

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Bluebook (online)
125 F.2d 701, 28 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1133, 1942 U.S. App. LEXIS 4456, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/urquhart-v-commissioner-of-internal-revenue-ca9-1942.