Estate of Newman

This is an appeal from an order fixing inheritance taxes under the Inheritance Tax Act of 1935, as amended. (Stats. 1935, p. 1266, as amended, Deering’s Gen. Laws, 1937, Act 8495.) The controversy is as to whether three transfers of property made by the decedent to his wife were transfers in contemplation of death within the meaning of the statute.

Mr. Newman and the appellant were married in 1924, he being 53 years of age and she 37. He was then engaged in business and she owned a gift shop which she continued to operate after the marriage, with encouragement and some assistance from him. In…