During her lifetime the decedent, Margaret Kunkle, had conveyed to her son, John F. Kunkle, the appellant, three tracts of land in St. Thomas Township, this county: one, containing about 104 acres, by deed dated June 8, 1928, and recorded June 9, 1928, and the other two by deed dated the same day and recorded the next day. On the same date said John F. Kunkle, the grantee in said deeds, executed a mortgage to said Margaret Kunkle for $10,000, conditioned upon his carrying out the agreement to maintain his said mother during the remainder of her life, and, in addition to pay to her $400 a year in cash so long as she lived, this mortgage covering all three tracts of land conveyed by said mother to said son as above set forth. After the death of Margaret Kunkle, John F. Kunkle, as executor of her will, satisfied said mortgage, its terms having been complied with.
On May 6, 1932, an 'appraisement for transfer tax purposes was filed in said
The matter so rested, no appeal having been taken from this decree, until March 27,1933, when a second appraisement, marked a “supplemental appraisement” was filed in said estate, in and by which the said three tracts of land, as described in said deeds above referred to, were appraised for transfer inheritance tax purposes in said estate, in the sum of $8600. From this appraisement, too, said John F. Kunkle has taken his appeal to this court, and it is on this appeal we are now passing.
This appeal raises two questions for the decision of the court:
1. Has the Commonwealth la right to make a second appraisement in the estate of the decedent, where the appraiser, with full knowledge of the facts and without any fraud or concealment from him, appraised a mortgage on certain real estate in the original appraisement, which appraisement the court on appeal set aside and directed to be stricken from the records, where the appraiser now in the present appraisement appraised for inheritance tax purposes real estate conveyed by the decedent to her son during her lifetime and covered by said mortgage?
2. If such second appraisement is upheld, is the real estate so appraised subject to transfer inheritance tax?
In the first place, while the present appraisement is marked a “supplemental appraisement”, it is not properly so designated. The original appraisement having been completely wiped off the books and canceled, was therefore no longer in existence, and, hence, this appraisement can not be a supplemental appraisement, as there is nothing for it to supplement. It must, therefore, be held to be a second appraisement in this estate. The name is not so essential, for if the Commonwealth had no right to make a second appraisement in this estate under the circumstances, it had no right to make a supplemental appraisement.
We come then to a consideration of the first question propounded in this appeal, and as we feel constrained to sustain this appeal for the reason set forth therein and hold that there is no power in the Commonwealth to make this second appraisement, we can dismiss the second question without discussion as it had no standing, with the first question so decided.
It is not contended on the part of the Commonwealth that the appraiser did not have full knowledge, when he made the original appraisement, of all the facts in the case just las fully 'as he had them when the second appraisement was made, the counsel for the Commonwealth saying in his brief: “The appraiser in the present case undoubtedly knew, or should have known, the facts as they existed, and the appraiser also unquestionably appraised the mortgage with this knowledge in mind, deciding that the mortgage was the proper thing to appraise.” Neither is it contended that there was any fraud to induce this appraisement. We have, therefore, an appraisement made with full knowledge of the estate without any fraud or concealment and, when that appraisement is set aside by the court, an attempt to file a second appraisement to correct a mistake of the appraiser. This can not be [done.
In Moneypenny’s Estate, 181 Pa. 309, 312, the Supreme Court said:
“The decedent died in 1884, ¡and in the same year an appraiser was appointed
It was conceded by counsel for the Commonwealth at the argument that unless Moneypenny’s Estate, supra, can be distinguished it rules the instant case, but he urged on us very strongly that that case does not decide that the Commonwealth has any right of appeal from the decision of the lower court, ■and, if it is held that there is no such appeal, then this decision of the Supreme Court comes to naught and is not good law. We can not agree with this contention. We feel that the right of appeal is fully recognized in Moneypenny’s Estate, supra, where it is saild: “The plain statutory remedy for such a case is not a second appraisement, but an appeal from the first. It does not admit of doubt that if the commonwealth had appealed, the court would have reviewed the appraiser’s action and corrected any error. This fact alone is conclusive that an appeal was the proper and exclusive remedy.” With this statement of the Supreme Court before us we can not hold that there is no right of appeal in the Commonwealth.
In addition to this, the right of appeal, founded on Moneypenny’s Estate, supra, has been recognized in a number of lower court cases. See Allison’s Estate, 18 Dist. R. 438; Wasser’s Estate, 19 Dist. R. 140; Winsor’s Estate, 11 D. & C. 423; Hyde’s Estate, 1 D. & C. 670.
But we are of the opinion that even if it be conceded that there is no right of appeal on the part of the Commonwealth, Moneypenny’s Estate, supra, yet held that no second appraisement may be made in cases such as this. In that case it was said, p. 313:
“But there is another reason why this proceeding cannot be sustained. The statutes do not contemplate or provide for more than one appraisement. On the contrary the intent is that the first shall be complete and final. By the Act of
This to our mind governs us in this case. There is no material difference between the Act of June 20,1919, P. L. 521, the one now in force, and the Act of April 10,1849, P. L. 570, referred to in Moneypennys’ Estate, in the essentials referred to in that opinion, and, hence, we are bound by it. The Act of 1919 provides in section 10 as follows: “Such appraiser shall make a fair, conscionable appraisement of such estates, and assess and fix the cash value of all annuities and life-estates growing out of said estates, upon which annuities and life-' estates the tax imposed by this act shall be immediately payable out of the estate at the rate of such valuation.” And in section 3 it provides: “Where there is a transfer of property by a devise, descent, bequest, gift, or grant, liable to the tax hereinbefore imposed, which devise, descent, bequest, gift, or grant is to take effect in possession or to come into actual enj oyment after the expiration of any one or more life-estates or a period of years, the tax on such estates shall not be payable, nor shall interest begin to run thereon, until the person liable for the same shall come into actual possession of such estate by the termination of the estates for life or years.”
Prom this it is seen that the law when Moneypenny’s Estate was decided and the law when Margaret Kunkle died is practically the same and the decision in that estate applies to the instant case anld we are bound by it.
In addition to this it is stated in Rowell’s Estate, 315 Pa. 181,183: “If this is a final appraisement, ias it appears to have been intended to be, it ends the present controversy, for a second appraisement is without authority in law: Moneypenny’s Est., 181 Pa. 309.”
We can not do otherwise under the law as we find it but to sustain the appeal filed to the present or second appraisement.
Prom Albert Strlte, Chambersburg, Pa.
