First Church of Christ v. First Trust & Savings Bank
First Church of Christ v. First Trust & Savings Bank
Opinion of the Court
This is an appeal by The First Church of Christ, Scientist, of Boston, Massachusetts, from two orders of the probate court: (1) determining residuary interest under will and overruling objections to inheritance tax report; and (2) fixing inheritance tax.
Testatrix, a widow, made her will in May, 1952, and passed away the following October. She left surviving no children or lineal descendants. Her nearest relatives are two cousins. The will was probated in November, 1952. The estate was appraised at more than $500,000 and consists principally of cash and securities.
Paragraph First of testatrix’ will reads as follows:
“First: I direct that my Executor hereinafter named, shall pay all my funeral and last illness expenses as soon after my demise as may be convenient, and all Federal estate and State inheritance or estate taxes, it being my direction that*478 all expenses and taxes payable by reason of my demise, be paid by my estate and not chargeable to the beneficiaries.”
By paragraph Fourth of her will testatrix incorporated therein specific bequests of household furniture, furnishings, jewelry, and wearing apparel to twelve designated persons. The total appraised value of these items is $3,605.40. Each has been distributed to the specific legatee and this appeal does not affect those gifts.
The other dispositive provisions of the will, by separately numbered paragraphs (seven through ten) give the remainder of her estate and property over which she had power of appointment to the following legatees in the proportions indicated :
Catherine Smith Pritchard, a friend, one-eighth
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts one-eighth
First Church of Christ, Scientist, of Bochester, New York one-eighth
First Trust and Savings Bank of Pasadena, in trust for N. B. Potter, Jr., a second cousin five-eighths.
Federal estate tax in excess of $90,000 has been paid by the executor. This proceeding was brought to determine before final distribution the impact or ultimate thrust of death taxes.
In the orders appealed from the court found: “that by the provisions of said Testatrix’ will she intended to and did provide that the Federal Estate Tax be paid by her estate and be not prorated among the beneficiaries; that the proportionate shares of the residuary beneficiaries in the residuary estate be determined and based on the residue remaining after the payment of Federal Estate Taxes; and that the Testatrix by her will provided that there be no proration of Federal Estate Taxes among the beneficiaries. ” As a consequence of this finding the court ordered “that the Federal Estate Tax, as the same may be finally determined, be paid by the Executor from said estate; that the residue of said estate distributable to the residuary beneficiaries be determined after deduction of Federal Estate Taxes; and that the Federal Estate Taxes shall not be prorated among the residuary beneficiaries. ’ ’
Only one of the charitable beneficiaries has appealed from these orders.
The question here is: Was the trial court correct in holding that the testamentary direction “that all expenses and taxes payable by reason of my demise, be paid by my estate
Section 970 of the Probate Code provides that when an executor has paid a federal estate tax “upon or with respect to any property required to be included in the gross estate of a decedent” under the provisions of any federal estate tax law, the amount of the tax so paid, except in a ease where the testator otherwise directs in his will (and except in specified cases not here material) “shall be equitably prorated among the persons interested in the estate to whom such property is or may be transferred or to whom any benefit accrues.” The problem here then is one of construction of paragraph First of the testatrix’ will. In other words, does the direction of the testatrix that “all expenses and taxes” that accrue because of her passing “be paid by my estate and not chargeable to the beneficiaries” present a situation “where a testator otherwise directs in his will” as to the payment of estate taxes so as to take the case out of the proration provision of section 970 of the Probate Code? To accomplish this result no specific language or formula is necessary. Any language that clearly shows that the testator does not intend proration is sufficient. (Estate of Hotaling, 74 Cal.App.2d 898, 901 [170 P.2d 111].) The intention of the testator is the controlling factor. Such intention must be derived “from the language of the will, where it is clear.” (Estate of Phelps, 182 Cal. 752, 756 [190 P. 17]; Estate of Watson, 32 Cal.App.2d 594, 598-599 [90 P.2d 349].) There is also the legislative injunction that “The words of a will are to receive an interpretation which will give to every expression some effect. ...” (Prob. Code, § 102.)
With these principles in mind, we must now examine the language the testatrix used and ascertain what she meant by what she said. At the outset it will be observed that the testatrix placed “expenses and, taxes” payable by reason of her passing in the same category. (Italics added.) This she was privileged to do. (Estate of Atwell, 85 Cal.App.2d 454, 460 [193 P.2d 519].) She thereupon directed that these items “be paid by my estate.” She then adds, pointedly, that such payments are “not chargeable to the beneficiaries” under her will. The testatrix has thus given her executor a single direction with respect to expenses and taxes, and placed both on the same footing. The language
Appellant takes the position that the testatrix intended to direct that proration of taxes should not be applied to the beneficiaries of the 12 specific bequests, thereby shifting to the residue as a whole the burden of death taxes. It then argues that these taxes must be borne solely by the non-charitable residuary beneficiaries since the amount that goes to the charitable institutions is deducted from the estate in computing the tax. Hence the charitable bequests do not contribute in any way to the creation of such taxes but in fact serve to reduce the amount thereof.
This argument is fallacious for two reasons: (1) It attributes to the testatrix an intention which she did not express in the language she used in her will. It would mean the insertion of the word “specific” before the word “beneficiaries” in the testatrix’ direction not to charge expenses and taxes to “the beneficiaries. ’ ’ This is not what she said in her will. She made no distinction between specific and residuary beneficiaries. She placed all beneficiaries in the same category, referring to them as “the beneficiaries.” To read into this clear and unambiguous direction of the testatrix a qualification that is not therein stated would involve rewriting the will and frustrating the testatrix’ expressed intent. This the courts cannot and will not do. Furthermore, appellant’s position is negatived not alone by the direction of the testatrix not to charge taxes to “the beneficiaries” but by her further express direction that they should be-paid by her estate. (2) Since the testatrix has unequivocally directed that the estate taxes should be paid from the estate and not chargeable to any beneficiaries as such,
Estate of Bauer, supra (hearing denied), is squarely decisive of the issue here involved and provides a complete answer to appellant’s contention that the entire tax should be paid from the share of the noncharity residuary beneficiaries alone. In the Bauer case, two-thirds of the residuary estate was to go to one individual and the remaining one-third to a tax-exempt charity. One of the questions on appeal was whether the federal estate tax was to be deducted before determining the amount of the distributable estate. There, as here, no proration statute was involved. The charity argued that inasmuch as its bequest was exempt from the federal estate tax and was not, therefore, a responsible cause of the estate tax imposed, the entire tax should be assessed on the individual’s share. It argued that to deduct the tax out of the estate would have the practical effect of reducing its distributive share though it was an exempt institution and did not contribute to the imposition of the tax burden. This argument was rejected by the court, which held in accordance with the prevailing rule, absent an applicable proration statute, that the “federal estate tax is a charge against the whole estate, is in the nature of an expense of administration, and is one of the items to be deducted from the gross estate in determining the amount of the distributable estate.” (P. 160.) In the course of arriving at this holding, the court stated (pp. 158-159): “. . . In the ease of Young Men’s Christian Assn. v. Davis, (1924) 264 U.S. 47 [44 S.Ct. 291, 68 L.Ed. 558], the residue of an estate, after specific bequests, was given to a charitable institution and the question was whether the estate tax should be paid from the specific bequests or from the
Appellant makes reference to Estate of Buckhantz, 120 Cal.App.2d 92 [260 P.2d 794]. No claim is made that the Buckhantz case is decisive of the issue here involved, nor could such claim legitimately be advanced. In that case, all the
Appellant relies on In re Bayne’s Will, 102 N.Y.S.2d 525, In re Pratt’s Estate, 123 N.Y.S.2d 425, and In re Campe’s Estate, 205 Misc. 699 [129 N.Y.S.2d 362]. None of these eases is helpful, for the direction by the testator in each was less comprehensive and less specific than in the instant matter. The direction in the above cases was simply that the
The orders are affirmed.
Moore, P. J., and McComb, J., concurred.
A petition for a rehearing was denied May 17, 1955, and appellant’s petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied June 16, 1955.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Estate of FLORENCE MacALPINE McAULIFFE, THE FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST, in Boston, Massachusetts v. FIRST TRUST & SAVINGS BANK OF PASADENA, as Trustee, etc.
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- 1 case
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- Published