Fleming v. Gowling

This appeal presents a question of apportionment of Federal estate tax liability among recipients of the assets of the estate of testator, Lyman Cowling. The circuit court of Jersey County ruled that the taxes should be paid from probate assets, thereby excluding the remainder interests of plaintiffs Lyman Fleming and Virginia Prosser, interests acquired by deeds executed in 1963. On appeal by testator’s widow, Pearl Cowling, the appellate court reversed, holding that the tax liability should be apportioned among all assets of the estate which generated that liability (77 Ill. App. 3d 548).…