State Street Bank and Trust v. United States

LEVIN H. CAMPBELL, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the district court sustaining the Commissioner’s disallowance of an estate tax charitable deduction claimed by the estate of Leah B. Cline under section 2055 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. At issue is whether, under circumstances existing at decedent’s death, payment by a trust of the charitable bequests in decedent’s will was a discretionary act or whether, instead, payment was so mandated that the possibility of nonpayment was a negligible contingency.

On March 24,1967, the decedent, Leah B. Cline, executed both a…