Reighard Estate
Reighard Estate
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The question in this case is whether David Boss Beighard, who died on October 26, 1950, was at the time domiciled in Pennsylvania or Florida. The Orphans’ Court of Blair County held he was domiciled in Pennsylvania. Dora Smith,
A review of the record would indicate that the lower Court could not, on the facts and the law, have possibly come to any conclusion other than the one it decreed. David Beighard was born in Claysburg, Blair County, Pennsylvania, on June 10, 1887. He attended the public schools there, went into the military service during World War I from that community, and engaged in business in Claysburg from 1925 until 1928.
As against this evidence of Pennsylvania domiciliation, it was shown in behalf of the appellant that twelve years prior to his death, Reighard had rented a small cottage in Qklawaha, Florida at $6. per month, and that in 1950 he had purchased it. It was shown also that he spent his winters in Florida, remaining there from 4 to 6 months every year, that he used Florida license plates for his automobile, claimed the Florida homestead exemption in 1950, registered in 1938 as a voter in Marion County, Florida and paid a Florida resident personal property tax. It was also demonstrated that the decedent had, for the purpose of voting in Florida, declared himself to be a resident of that State.
What is the test of permanent residence or domicile? It is not, as is sometimes supposed, simply , the intent of the person involved. The intent without the
In the Dorrance’s Estate, 309 Pa. 151, 173, the lighthouse case in Pennsylvania on domiciliary intent, this Court said: “One of the most satisfactory definitions of domicile is that stated by Story in his ‘Conflict of Laws’: ‘By the term domicile in its ordinary acceptation is meant that place where a person lives or has his home. In a strict legal sense that is properly the domicile of a person where he has his true, fixed, permanent house and principal establishment, and to which, whenever he is absent, he has the intention of returning.”
No one questions that before Reighard began his annual winter visits to Florida he was a bona fide domiciliary of Pennsylvania. Did he change his domicile? In the Lesker Case, supra, we said further: “To accomplish a change of domicile there must be not only the animus to change but the factum as well. There must be an actual transfer of bodily presence from one place to the other. The animus and the factum do not need to be simultaneous, but until they coincide the change of domicile is not effected. In the law a domicile is as deep rooted as a tree and to transfer it from one location to another requires an operation as intensive as the digging up, loading, transportation, and replanting of an elm or maple.” (P. 419)
Reighard did not move his permanent establishment to Florida. He maintained in Claysburg an uninterrupted habitation open twelve months a year, he retained his bank accounts in Claysburg, he purchased
It would seem that Eeighard hoped to establish a Florida residence only for the purpose of evading Pennsylvania taxes. F. W. Burket, the tax collector of Greenfield Township, Pennsylvania, testified: “Q. You say the reason Mr. Eeighard gave you for listing as a non-resident of Greenfield Township was the fact that Pennsylvania taxes were too high. A. That is what he told me.”
Eussell H. Weyandt testified that Eeighard gave to him his reason for his going to Florida: “More or less to get out of the cold weather, and he dealt in stocks and he said it would save him some taxes down there, but he had always been a resident of Pennsylvania.”
But, even if successful in avoiding payment of some Pennsylvania taxes, this fact in itself would not effect a change of domicile. As we said in the Dorrance case, “Every man must have a domicile somewhere and a man cannot elect to make his home in one place for the general purposes of life, and in another place for the purposes of taxation.” (Emphasis supplied). “Where one’s conduct conclusively shows his residence to be in one place, his expressed intention that it shall be in another place may not override the fact so as to locate it there. The intention in that case will be inferred from residence alone in the face of contrary expressions of purpose.” (p. 166).
If Eeighard had really intended to make Florida his permanent habitat, he would most probably have had his fortune or a goodly portion of it, with him there. The fact is, however, that he did not even maintain a bank account in Florida. It is true that he voted twice in Florida and it is true that he used Florida automobile license plates, but these incidents were but fluttering leaves of transitory expression in no way
Decree affirmed. Costs on the appellant.
Also known as Dora E. Reighard.
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