United States v. Vanderbilt
District Court, S.D. New York
At Law. Actions by the United States against Reginald C. Vanderbilt, against Frederick L- Merriam, and against Henry B. Anderson. On demurrers to complaints. The «ases arise upon the demurrers to complaints at law to recover the income taxes upon certain legacies left the defendants under the will of Alfred G. Vanderbilt, who died in 1915. The will disposed of a large estate, and set up various independent trusts of indefinite duration.
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At Law. Actions by the United States against Reginald C. Vanderbilt, against Frederick L- Merriam, and against Henry B. Anderson. On demurrers to complaints. The «ases arise upon the demurrers to complaints at law to recover the income taxes upon certain legacies left the defendants under the will of Alfred G. Vanderbilt, who died in 1915. The will disposed of a large estate, and set up various independent trusts of indefinite duration. The only parts relevant to these cases are the eleventh and sixteenth clauses, which read as follows: “Eleventh. I give and bequeath to my brother Reginald G.…
1Opinion of the CourtLearned Hand, District Judge
(after stating the facts as above). There seems to me no question whatever that these legacies, in part, anyway, are “compensation for personal 'services.” When the testator provided that they should be “in lieu of all compensation or commissions to which they would otherwise be entitled as executors and trustees,” he could only have meant to substitute the legacies in the place of their statutory compensation. If a substitute, the legacies must themselves have been compensation, and since the commissions would certainly have been for “personal services,” the substitute itself was the same.…
2Cases cited3 opinions
- Richardson v. RichardsonAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York · 1911
- Harper's AppealSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1884
- Renshaw v. WilliamsCourt of Appeals of Maryland · 1892
3Cited by1 opinion
- Bank of New York v. HelveringCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit · 1943