Loeffler's Estate

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Schaffer,

In this proceeding, the Commonwealth is endeavoring to collect a transfer inheritance tax on certain shares of corporate capital stock, standing in the name of the decedent, where the uncontradicted testimony shows they did not belong to him, but to his wife, who had turned them over to him for business and marital reasons, for a nominal consideration.

The judges of the orphans’ court differed in opinion as to whether the stocks formed part of the decedent’s estate. The majority of the court held they did, and awarded the tax claimed to the Commonwealth, the…