121 Pa. 368 | Pa. | 1888
Opinion,
Briefly stated, the question in this case is whether the commonwealth is entitled to collateral inheritance tax on 12,730,000, the agreed value of certain real, and personal property, which belonged to John DuBois on January 17, 1884.
On that day Mr. DuBois executed and delivered to his
The only ground on which the commonwealth can assert any right to the tax in question is that the conveyance, in the language of the act, was, “ made or intended to take effect in possession or enjoyment after the death of the grantor or bargainor.” If it was either made or intended to take effect, either in possession or enjoyment, after his death, it follows from the very language of the act that the commonwealth is entitled to the tax. Conceding the conveyance was made and intended to take effect in possession before the death of the grantor, was it either made or intended to take effect in enjoyment before the happening of that event ? In a clear and convincing opinion, on which we might well rest our affirmance of his decree, the learned president of the Orphans’ Court held that the conveyance was not intended to take effect, nor did it in fact take effect in enjoyment until the decease of the grantor. His finding of fact to that effect was clearly warranted by the evidence; but, waiving that point, and conceding for sake of argument, that there is no competent evidence of intention dehors the instrument itself, we have no doubt the conveyance, fairly construed, according to the spirit and meaning of the act above quoted, did not take effect in enjoyment until the decease of the grantor.
The manifest effect of the conditions, reservations, covenants
According to the express terms and conditions of the conveyance, it is simply impossible that it could take effect in enjoyment, as to any of the property embraced therein, during the lifetime of the grantor. In the event of his surviving the grantee, the deed was to become null and void, and everything revert to the former. During their joint lives the grantor had the power to incur obligations to the full value of the property, for which the property itself, as well as the grantee individually was directly and specifically liable. The naked legal title acquired by the grantee was the merest shadow. The grantor
It is unnecessary to notice the specifications of error seriatim. As already intimated, the able and exhaustive opinion of the court below, in which every material question is fully considered and correctly disposed of, relieves us from the further consideration of those questions.
Decree affirmed, and appeal dismissed at the costs of appellant.