Herbert H. Land, Jr., and John Edgar Land v. United States

In this federal estate tax dispute, the Government valued property in a Louisiana estate at the time the taxpayers received a judgment of possession, asserting that 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 their rights under the judgment are subject to a usufruct in favor of the decedent’s husband. As the district court reasoned, however, the usu-fruct did…