114 Misc. 452 | N.Y. Sur. Ct. | 1921
This appeal is taken by the executor and executrix of the estate of the above-named decedent from the order fixing the transfer tax, on the ground that four policies of life insurance of the face value of $283,257.24 were reported by the appraiser as taxable in that amount. The policies when issued by the company were made payable to the estate of decedent. Three days before he died he assigned them to his son-in-law. He had submitted to three operations for cancer, from which he died on February 28, 1918, at the age of sixty-eight years. He had been under the constant care of a physician and nurse since the first operation was performed in August, 1916, and had been confined to his bed for a month and a half previous to his death. At the time of the execution of the assignments his physical condition, as disclosed by the testimony taken before the transfer tax appraiser, was such that he must have been aware that he had but a short time to live. It is significant that the usual form of changing the beneficiaries in the policies was not followed because of the length of time which the adoption of this course would have involved. The proceeds of the policies in their original form would have been taxable as part of the assets of the estate of decedent. Matter of Knoedler, 140 N. Y. 377.
Order affirmed.