296 N.Y. 676 | NY | 1946
Lead Opinion
Order affirmed, with costs payable out of the estate; no opinion.
Concur: LOUGHRAN, Ch. J., DESMOND, DYE and TOWNLEY*, JJ.
Dissenting Opinion
We are asked upon this appeal to overrule a long line of decisions by this court, in the interests of uniformity, because the Supreme Court of the United States has recently decided contrariwise. While the rule of uniformity is entitled to great weight and would ordinarily persuade us to follow the Supreme Court's construction of the Federal prototype of our estate tax law, we cannot see our way clear to do so here.
It has long been settled in this State that where the exercise of a general testamentary power of appointment transfers nomore to the beneficiary than he would have received — in default of such exercise — under the instrument creating the power, the property is deemed, for the purposes of death taxation, to have passed under the latter instrument by operation of law, and is, therefore, not taxable in the estate of the donee. (Matter ofVanderbilt,
In our opinion, no defect in reason or logic has been advanced which warrants our repudiation of the rule heretofore adopted by this court. Reversal of the order herein is accordingly indicated, unless we are compelled, in the interests of uniformity of estate tax administration, to abandon our own rules whenever they conflict with Federal decisions in such matters.
The "rule" or "doctrine" — if such it may be called — of uniformity grows out of the fact that the New York estate tax law (Tax Law, art. 10-C) was purposely modeled upon the Federal estate tax law to simplify the legal and administrative work involved (N.Y. Legis. Doc., 1930, No. 69, p. 195). Originating in the Surrogate's courts (see, e.g., Matter of French,
The rule has, up to the present, been applied only (1) in *680 cases of first impression and (2) in cases where the question involved — though previously passed upon by this court in connection with prior tax laws — is being raised for the first time under the estate tax law. We do not believe that its application should be extended to cases where the precise point in issue has already been raised and passed upon under the existing estate tax law. More particularly, we do not believe that the court is either compelled to, or should, in the interests of uniformity, abandon a construction of the New York estate tax law — a construction not only in accord with our previously settled and well-considered opinion, but one previously approved and adopted by the Supreme Court itself and by it applied to the Federal estate tax law. (Helvering v.Grinnell, supra, pp. 156-157.) Under all of the circumstances, we choose to adhere to our settled rule.
The order of the Appellate Division should be reversed, with costs, and the order of the Surrogate's Court affirmed.