U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 1944

Field's Estate v. Commissioner

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit · Decided July 13, 1944 · Chase, Frank, Hand

144 F.2d 62; 32 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1148; 1944 U.S. App. LEXIS 2748 (Federal Reporter, Second Series)

Counsel

Edgar J. Bernheimer, of New York City (Sydney J. Schwartz, of New York City, of counsel), for petitioner., Samuel O. Clark, Jr., Sewall Key, Helen R. Carloss, and Robert Koerner, all of Washington, D. C., for respondent.

Cases that cite this one

4 later published cases cite this decision.

Barnett Hollander, of the Will of Lester Field, Deceased v. United States (2d Cir. 1957)
Estate of Field v. United States (District Court, S.D. New York 1955)
Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Co. v. Rothensies (Supreme Court of the United States 1945)
Commissioner v. Estate of Field (Supreme Court of the United States 1945)

This list shows which later cases cite this one. It does not say how they treated it, and no review of that has been done. Not a substitute for Shepard’s or KeyCite — verify before relying.

Opinion of the Court

FRANK, Circuit Judge.

In Helvering v. Hallock, 309 U.S. 106, 111, 60 S.Ct. 444, 84 L.Ed. 604, 125 A.L.R. 1368, the Court said that “the measure of the tax is the value of the transferred property at the time when death brings it into enjoyment” Precisely what that means has been a matter of much comment.1 We do not agree with the Tax Court that Smith v. Shaughnessy, 318 U.S. 176, 63 S.Ct. 545, 87 L.Ed. 690, which dealt with a gift tax, aids decision here. Whatever we might now hold if this were for us a novel question, we need not consider, for the matter is governed in this circuit by our decisions in Commissioner v. Flanders, 2 Cir., 111 F.2d 117 and Bankers Trust Co. v. Higgins, 2 Cir., 136 F.2d 477. Accordingly we hold that the value of the transfer at decedent’s death consisted of the value of the trust property minus the value of the life estates of his two nieces. The resulting taxable value here is $24,930.76. We reverse with directions to the Tax Court to fix the tax on that value.

Reversed and remanded.

See Paul, Federal Estate and Gift Taxation, Sec. 7.25.

Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.