Herbert P. Reardon and John E. Reardon v. United States

In this federal estate tax dispute, the Government valued the property in a Louisiana estate at the time taxpayers received a judgment of possession, asserting that the judgment represented a “distribution” within the meaning of 26 U.S.C.A. § 2032(a)(1) (1967) (amended 1970, 1976). See Stoutz v. United States, 324 F.Supp. 197, 200-203 (E.D.La.1970), aff’d, 439 F.2d 1197 (5th Cir. 1971). The taxpayers would distinguish Stoutz on the ground that the succession here was intestate, the heirs were seized of the succession as of the moment of death, and the judgment of possession worked no change…