324 Mass. 639 | Mass. | 1949
This petition was addressed to the Probate Court by the surviving executor of the will of Jesse P. Lyman, who prays that the estate, for which commissioners in insolvency had previously been appointed, be now determined to be solvent, and that either the report of the commissioners purporting to deal with claims be disallowed in its entirety, or that all unsatisfied claims on which no action was seasonably brought be disallowed.
Among the claims which the commissioners allowed was
The pertinent facts relative to the claim of the United States for the tax of 1930 appear from a report of facts by the judge which was obviously intended to be a complete report of the material facts. The amount claimed for the tax of 1930 was assessed against Jesse P. Lyman May 25, 1931. He died September 14, 1931. His executors were appointed and qualified October 6, 1931. They gave due notice of their appointment and filed an affidavit of that notice. It follows that if the short statute of limitation is applicable the executors cannot be “held to answer to an action by a creditor of the deceased which . . . [was] not commenced” by October 6, 1932. G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 197, § 9. No action was commenced by the United States before or on that date. The executors filed a representation of probable insolvency on January 4, 1933. On March 31, 1933, the court appointed commissioners “to receive and examine all claims of creditors” against the estate. G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 198, § 2. The United States filed its claim with the commissioners “some time after their appointment.” They returned their report, allowing the claim for the tax of 1930, on January 3, 1934. As the result of the former litigation ending in a compromise the estate is now solvent.
2. The executor, however, although conceding that, in general, the United States as a body politic can pursue its claims in State courts (Cotton v. United States 11 How. 229; Claflin v. Houseman, 93 U. S. 130; Testa v. Katt, 330 U. S. 386), contends that the effect of the short statute of limitation was to deprive the Probate Court of jurisdiction over any claim against which that statute had run, and that since the State fixes the jurisdiction of its own courts and cannot be required to hold them open solely for claims of the United States of a kind which would otherwise be beyond
3. The executor makes the more far reaching contention that because of the wording and the history of U. S. C. (1946 ed.) Title 26, §§ 3744 and 3745 (c), a suit to recover taxes, as distinguished from “fines, penalties, and forfeitures,” must at all times material to this case have been brought in a District Court of the United States and could not be brought in a State court.
We may add that we see no inconsistency in holding, in accordance with the decisions previously cited, that the presentation of the claim was “a proceeding in court” within the meaning of those words in U. S. C. (1946 ed.) Title 26, § 276 (c), and at the same time holding that such presentation was not a suit to recover the tax within the meaning of any prohibition against State jurisdiction that may be implied in U. S. C. (1946 ed.) Title 26, § 3744, and predecessor statutes.
4. The executor finally contends that there is no proof of compliance with the requirements of U. S. C. (1946 ed.) Title 26, § 3740, that “No suit for the recovery of taxes . . . shall be commenced unless the commissioner authorizes or sanctions the proceedings and the Attorney General directs that the suit be commenced.” The record is silent on these
In our view the commissioners had authority to allow the entire claim of the United States, and the Probate Court should not have reduced the amount allowed by the amount claimed for the tax of 1930. The view we take does not require us to consider the power of the Probate Court in general to disallow claims allowed by the commissioners where there has been no appeal to the Superior Court under G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 198, § 11. See § 8 and c. 215, § 3. Greenwood v. McGilvray, 120 Mass. 516.
That part of the decree appealed from which reduces the amount allowed on the claim of the United States is struck out, and the claim is to stand as allowed in the full sum allowed by the commissioners.
So ordered.
These two sections now read as follows: “ § 3744. Suits for taxes. Taxes may be sued for and recovered in the name of the United States in any proper form of action, before any district court of the United States, for the district within which the liability to such tax is incurred, or where the party from whom such tax is due resides at the time of the commencement of the said action.” “ § 3745. Suits for fines, penalties, and forfeitures .... (c) Plaintiff, proceedings, and venue. All suits for fines, penalties, and forfeitures, where not otherwise provided for, shall be brought in the name of the United States, in any proper form of action, or by any appropriate form of proceeding, qui tarn or otherwise, before any district court of the United States for the district within which said fine, penalty, or forfeiture may have been incurred, or before any other court of competent jurisdiction.”
For the history of these sections see Act of March 8, 1806, 2 U. S. Sts. at Large, 354; Act of April 21, 1808, 2 U. S. Sts. at Large, 489; Act of March 3, 1815, 3 U. S. Sts. at Large, 244; Act of June 30, 1864, § 4Í, 13 U. S. Sts. at Jjarge, 239; Act of July 13, 1866, § 41, 14 U. S. Sts. at Large, 111; U. S. Rev. Sts. [1878], § 3213; Act of March 3, 1911, c. 231, § 289, 36 U. S. Sts. at Large, 1167; U. S. Comp. Sts. [1918], § 5937 (in effect when the claim was presented to the commissioners).