Case ID: ny_219/html/0566-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

In the Matter of the Transfer Tax upon the Estate of Tirso M. y Hernandez, Deceased. The Comptroller of the State of New York, Appellant; Josefina G. P. Mesa, as Ancillary Guardian of Violet H. Mesa, et al., Respondents.
    
      Matter of Hernandez, 172 App. Div. 467, affirmed.
    (Argued October 5, 1916;
    decided October 24, 1916.)
    Appeal from an order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the first judicial department, entered May 5, 1916, which affirmed a decree of the New York County Surrogate’s Court dismissing an appeal from a prior decree assessing a transfer tax upon the estate of Tirso M. y Hernandez, deceased. The surrogate fixed the -tax upon the theory that the deceased was a non-resident. The comptroller claims that the deceased was a resident and that the tax should have been assessed accordingly, and that there was improperly deducted from the personal property of the deceased within this state one-half of the total sum upon the theory that this one-half belonged to the widow of the deceased under the Spanish law as her gananciales or joint gains of the marriage; that as the deceased was a naturalized American citizen and a resident of New York, the rights of his widow are fixed by the law of the forum and not by the Spanish law.
    
      Alexander Otis, Schuyler C. Carlton and Lafayette B. Cleason for appellant.
    
      George W. Phillips, Jr., and Charles Stewart Davison for respondents.
   Order affirmed, with costs; no opinion.

Concur: Hiscock, Chase, Cuddebaok, Hogan, Cardozo and Pound, JJ. Absent: Willard Bartlett, Ch. J.