John F. Finley, of the Estate of Mildred B. Whitlock v. United States

REAVLEY, Circuit Judge:

This appeal arises from a refund suit in which the district court determined that the value of a trust, over which taxpayer’s decedent held a general testamentary power of appointment, could not be included under I.R.C. § 2041(a), (b)(1) in decedent’s taxable estate since she had been mentally incompetent and therefore legally incapable of exercising that power throughout her possession of it. We decide, however, that under I.R.C. § 7422(e) 1 the district court lost juris diction over the issue when taxpayer filed a petition in the Tax Court for redetermination of an…