Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Estate of Herman J. Bosch, Deceased, Irving Trust Company, Executor,respondent

The Commissioner’s appeal concerns an important problem in the administration of the revenue laws — the conclusiveness of a judgment of a lower state court, typically in an intra-family setting, that determines property interests entailing federal tax consequences. The Supreme Court has not spoken to the point for nearly thirty years. Difficulties arise because of the practical unacceptability of the strictly logical polar positions; that the judgment of an inferior state court not binding as res judicata can never be more than rebuttable evidence of state law, and that any such judgment…