Provident Trust Co. v. United States

HASTIE, Circuit Judge.

A federal estate tax refund claim, denied by the court below sitting without a jury, is the matter in controversy in this appeal.

The essential facts are not in dispute. The plaintiffs are the executors of Marriott Morris, whose sister, Elizabeth Morris, had predeceased him by only three months, leaving him her sole heir. When Morris died the administration of his sister’s estate had not been completed. No federal estate tax had been paid and her personal property, worth more than a million and a half dollars, had not been distributed. Several months after Morris died, an…