174 N.E. 753 | NY | 1931
The State of Connecticut has petitioned the Surrogate's Court of the county of New York to direct the executor of a will to remit the assets of the estate to an administrator c.t.a., appointed in Connecticut, the domicile of the testatrix. The return is requested for a single purpose. The purpose is to permit the assessment and collection in Connecticut of a tax upon the transfer effected by the will.
The Surrogate in denying the petition placed his ruling upon two grounds. He held that to return the assets for such a purpose would be equivalent to the enforcement by one State of the tax laws of another (Colorado v. Harbeck,
We are not required to determine whether the return of assets to another State with a view to the imposition of a tax by the taxing officers of the domicile is the enforcement of a foreign tax law within Colorado v. Harbeck (supra). (Cf. Moore v.Mitchell,
Other questions suggested on the argument are mentioned only to exclude them from the scope of our decision.
We do not attempt to say whether Connecticut has jurisdiction by proceedings in her own courts to impress a lien upon choses in action which had a situs in that State at the death of the testatrix, though the documentary evidences are present in New York. No such question is before us.
For like reasons, we do not attempt to say whether a lien for taxes, duly laid by Connecticut either by statute or by judgment upon assets with a situs in that State at the death of the testatrix, will be recognized and enforced in the courts of New York on the same basis as any other charge or proprietary interest. Colorado v. Harbeck (supra) was a case of an attempted collection of a tax on the basis of a debt through an action in personam (
The order should be affirmed.
POUND, CRANE, KELLOGG, O'BRIEN and HUBBS, JJ., concur; LEHMAN, J., not sitting.
Order affirmed.