Cranston v. Bodkin

I dissent. The Legislature has provided in plain terms that every transfer by will is subject to the inheritance tax.1 A testator’s transfer by bequest or devise in performance of an agreement is no less a “transfer by will” than a bequest or devise for any other purpose. Nothing in the present statute or its prede*157cessors suggests that a transfer by will pursuant to an enforceable contract is excepted from the normal operation of the tax. In all the years since the Legislature first selected succession as a subject of tax (Stats. 1853, ch. 127, art. V [Comp. Laws of Cal., Garfielde, 1853, p.…