Case ID: dem-sur_6/html/0145-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "The Surrogate.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Kings County.
    Hon. ABRAHAM LOTT, Surrogate.
    July, 1887.
    Matter of McGarvey. In the matter of the estate of Samuel W. Woolsey, deceased.
    
    The exemption from taxation, extended by the “act to tax gifts, legacies,” etc. (L. 1885, ch. 483), to a devise or bequest in favor of the “ husband of a daughter” is unaffected by the circumstance of the death of the latter occurring before that of the testator, her parent.
    In the proceedings for a judicial settlement of executors’ account, Frances W. McGarvey, infant legatee and devisee under the will, filed an objection, showing that the executors had paid a legacy of $10,000 to Edward McGarvey, widower of a deceased daughter of testator, without deduction of legacy tax, and contending that the executors should be personally charged with, and required to pay the tax with interest.
    Herry Major, special guardian.
    
   The Surrogate.

I think that the legacy to Edward McGarvey is not subject to the collateral inheritance tax. The statute exempts the husband of a daughter. It is true the wife of McGarvey died before the testator, but I think this does not affect the matter. The legislature may have had in view more than the benefit accruing to the wife of the legatee by this exemption. The children of a deceased daughter may have been considered as favored by the exemption, from this tax, of a legacy to their father.