This action was brought in the Court of Claims by the executors of Dellora R. Gates to recover $120,508.50, a part of the estate tax alleged to have been illegally exacted under the Revenue Act of 1918, c. 18, § 403, 40 Stat. 1057,
The governing provision of the Act is: "That for the purpose of the tax the value of the net estate shall be determined — (a) In the case of a resident, by deducting from the value of the gross estate — . . . (3) The amount of all bequests . . . to or for the use of any corporation organized and operated exclusively for . . . charitable . . . purposes." Allowance of the deduction was denied pursuant to Treasury Department Regulations 37, Article 56, which declared: "Conditional Bequests. — Where the bequest, legacy, devise, or gift is dependent upon the performance of some act, or the happening of some event, in order to become effective it is necessary that the performance of the act or the occurrence of the event shall have taken place before the deduction can be allowed. Where by the terms of the bequest, devise or gift, it is subject to be defeated by a subsequent act or event, no deduction will be allowed."
Article Fifty-first of the will gives one-half of the residuary estate to the testatrix's trustees in trust for her niece, Dellora F. Angell, portions of the principal to be paid to her upon her attaining the ages of thirty and thirty-five years, the balance to be paid to her upon her attaining the age of forty, the income to be paid to her in the meantime.
The Court of Claims did not find that the present value of the contingent bequests to the charities can be determined by the calculations of actuaries based upon experience tables. No basis is laid in the record for supplementing the findings in this respect. But the executors urge that we may take judicial notice that such tables exist; and that, by the use of them, actuaries are able to determine that in 1918 the possibility that the residuary gift of $11,783,072.30, or a part thereof, would ultimately go to the charities was worth at least $482,034; or in other words, 4.0909 per cent of the amount of that residue. The figure, $482,034, we are told, is reached, through the actuarial art, by some combination and adjustment of the
If all the facts stated had been embodied in findings, no legal basis would be laid for the deduction claimed. The volume and character of the experience upon which the conclusions drawn from these two tables are based, differ from the volume and character of the experience embodied in standard mortality tables, almost as widely as possibility from certainty. Both of these tables, are based on data contained in volumes of Lodge's Peerage. The first table, which may be found in the Transactions of the Faculty of Actuaries in Scotland, Vol. 1, pp. 278-279, and is called Lees' Female Peerage Tables, was constructed by M. Mackensie Lees. It deals with 4,440 lives, of whom 2,010 died during the period of observation. The second of the tables, which may be found in an article entitled "On the Probability that a Marriage entered into by a Man of any Age, will be Fruitful," in the Journal of the Institute of Actuaries of Great Britain, Vol. 27, pp. 212-213, was constructed by Dr. Thomas Bond Sprague. It deals with the experience of 1,522 male members of the Scotch peerage and purports to show the probability that a marriage will be childless both as respects men married as peer or heir apparent and men who did not marry as peer or heir apparent. In order to apply the latter table to females certain assumptions and adjustments are necessarily made. It was on such data that the petitioners sought to set a money value on the probability that this Texas girl of fifteen will not marry, or if she does, will die without issue before the
One may guess, or gamble on, or even insure against, any future event. The Solicitor General tells us that Lloyds of London will insure against having twins. But the fundamental question in the case at bar, is not whether this contingent interest can be insured against or its value guessed at, but what construction shall be given to a statute. Did Congress in providing for the determination of the net estate taxable, intend that a deduction should be made for a contingency, the actual value of which cannot be determined from any known data? Neither taxpayer, nor revenue officer — even if equipped with all the aid which the actuarial art can supply — could do more than guess at the value of this contingency. It is clear that Congress did not intend that a deduction should be made for a contingent gift of that character. Compare Edwards v. Slocum, 264 U.S. 61, 63.
Affirmed.
Comment
User Comments