1 Conn. App. 529 | Conn. App. Ct. | 1984
The stipulation of the parties discloses the following facts: On October 7, 1976, the plaintiff administrator of the estate of James J. Sullivan filed with the state tax department a succession tax return which included a parcel of land located in the city of Bridgeport with a reported fair market value of $164,000 at the time of the decedent's death. In making the valuation, the plaintiff relied upon an appraisal by a licensed real estate agent. An item on the return, unrelated to the valuation in question, was a disputed claim based on a loan which because of its doubtful nature had been assigned a value of "nil." The defendant commissioner of revenue services (commissioner) informed the plaintiff that the tax could not be computed until the disputed claim was resolved. On July 20, 1978, after the resolution of that claim, the plaintiff filed a corrected succession tax return which showed the Bridgeport property as having a fair market value of $84,000. On August 3, 1978, the commissioner filed with the Probate Court an objection to the reduced valuation and, on August 14, 1978, computed the succession tax based on the original valuation of $164,000. The plaintiff thereafter filed an objection to the use of the value of $164,000 in computing the tax.
On September 22, 1978, the Probate Court, after a hearing on the plaintiff's objection, decreed that there was no right to amend the succession tax return after it is accepted by the tax commissioner and that the commissioner's computation was correct. The plaintiff appealed to the Superior Court which sustained his appeal, finding that the taxability of the transfer should be based upon a fair market value of $84,000. The commissioner appeals1 from that decision, claiming that the valuation in the original tax return should be used. *531
The central issues on appeal are: (1) whether
General Statutes (Rev. to 1975)
The commissioner argues that this issue was dispositively treated in Heffernan v. Slapin,
The plaintiff acknowledges the outcome in Slapin and contends that he is relying not on
In an appeal from a probate order or decree, the Superior Court does not exercise its general jurisdiction but exercises the powers of the probate court from which the appeal was taken. "The probate court is a court of limited jurisdiction and has only such powers as are given it by statute or are reasonably to be implied in order to carry out its statutory powers." Prince v. Sheffield,
Exceptional circumstances may exist in which the court will consider an equitable attack on a probate order or decree. Reynolds v. Owen,
Section
There is error, the judgment is set aside and the case is remanded with direction to dismiss the plaintiff's appeal.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.