AMERICAN TRUST COMPANY v. United States

HARRIS, District Judge.

Plaintiff, the estate representative of Augusta Lachmund, seeks to recover the tax assessed on a sum in excess of $100,-000, representing a transfer by decedent in trust for her husband, November 6, 1952, some sixteen months prior to her allegedly unexpected death in 1954. Remainder beneficiaries under the trust were decedent’s daughter and grandchildren.

The sole question before the Court is whether the transfer, made within three years of decedent’s death, was made in contemplation of death. If the answer is in the affirmative, the tax is a correct one. But if…