Milliken's Estate
Milliken's Estate
Opinion of the Court
James Milliken died February 4, 1902, intestate, unmarried and without issue ; at his death his domicile was in the city of New York. He left a large personal estate consisting of stocks, bonds and cash which at his death was actually in New York, the place of his domicile. He left several collateral heirs among them a sister, this intestate, whose residence was in Bellefonte, Centre county, Pennsylvania; there descended to her at her brother’s death one third of his estate, the net value of her share being $108,244.47; two weeks after his death, before any part of this had come into her actual possession, she on February 18, 1902, died intestate, unmarried and without issue. The question under the case stated is whether the sister’s share of her brother’s estate, his estate having been administered in New York, is subject to the collateral inheritance •tax imposed by the laws of Pennsylvania.
Our act of May 6, 1887, enacts: “ That all estates, real, personal and mixed of every kind whatsoever .... and • all estates situate in another state, territory or county, when •the persons dying seized thereof shall have their domicile •within this commonwealth .... are hereby made subject to a tax of five dollars on every hundred dollars on the clear value of such estate.”
The moment the brother died, the law cast upon the sister her. share in his estate. It is wholly immaterial that the net amount was not yet fixed and could not be until the final settlement of the administration in New York; her right to the net amount was irrevocably fixed by his death. This is the sum of all the authorities. “ An heir is one upon whom the law casts
Reference
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- Syllabus
- Taxation — Collateral inheritance tax — Decedent's estates — Property in another state. Where a man dies intestate and domiciled in another state, and leaves personal property, all of which is in the state of decedent’s domicile, and two weeks afterwards his sister, who was domiciled in Pennsylvania and who was entitled to a share of his estate, also dies before actually receiving any of the estate, such share of the estate is liable for the payment of the collateral inheritance tax of the state of Pennsylvania. In such a case the sister immediately upon the death of her brother was not only in constructive possession of her share of his estate, but she was to a degree in actual possession, inasmuch as she could exercise every right of an owner in actual possession, except that of determining the amount of charges for administration ; she was the absolute uncontrolled owner subject to a trifling lien.