38 A.D. 223 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1899
This is. an appeal from an order of the surrogate of the. county of New York, confirming the report of an appraiser, imposing a transfer tax upon property received under certain deeds executed and delivered to the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company by Jabez A. Bostwick, deceased. Bostwick died in August, 1892, and at the time of his death was a resident of the city of New York. The statute imposing a tax, in force at the. time of his death (Chap. 399, Laws of 1892, § 1, the Transfer Tax Act), provided, among other things, that a tax should be imposed upon the transfer of any property, real or personal, of the value of $500 or over, or of any interest therein or income therefrom, in trust or otherwise, when the transfer was made 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.” The question .presented is whether; under the statute, the transfers in question were subject to a tax. A slight consideration of some of the provisions of the instruments will demonstrate that the question is one not difficult of solution. The instruments, six in number,, were executed and delivered to the trust company at different times between August 19, 1889, and February 3, 1892, and provided that Bostwick. could, at any time prior to his death, withdraw from the possession of the trustee any or all of the property transferred, and' substitute other property in its place. They also provided that he could alter,.amend or terminate the trust in whole or in part, and in case of a termination all the property- should be returned to him. A further provision was inserted in some of them to. the effect that the, income from the property, or the greater portion of it, should, during’Bostwick’s life, if he so desired, be paid by the trustee to him, or to such other persons as he might direct.
It requires neither argument nor authority to demonstrate that, under the statute referred to; a tax was properly imposed upon the property transferred. By these instruments Bostwick did not, in
It follows that a tax was properly imposed, and that the order of the surrogate was right • and should be affirmed, with costs to the respondent.
Yan Brunt, P. <L, Patterson, O’Brien and Ingraham, JJ., concurred.
Order affirmed, with costs.