The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-09-12
TAX IN DANGER ON
wendell MILLIONS
Estate Estimated as High as
$40. 900, 900 Appraised at
Only S2.979,933.
ASSIGNED TO SISTERS

WHITE PLAINS. n. ". Sept IL
John Gottlieb Wendell. whose estate
has always been considered to be worth
between $4,000. 900 ard sso.oo'o 900.
and perhaps more. left property worth
only 81. 9T9, 1913. according to ala APP
praisal filed to-day with state Tritnsfer
Tax Appraiser William G. Clark OF
Mount Vernon by Burlock T.. abe ", at
torney for the Wendell estate.
The state Transfer a Appraisers
anticipated hat the inheritance tax on
the estate would amount to nearly ~.
900, 600. and a hight will now be waged
to prove that millions Of dollars worth
of property transferred to the four
Wendell sisters before John q. werhels
death Is taxable.
The appraisal, a severe jolt TO the
State Comptroller's attorney. Franc h A.
wirslow. aud his assistant, Charles G.
Fenno. OF White Plains, shows that MIR.
wendsr who died November 30. 1914.
at Santa Monica. Cal, pr 'vious to- his
death made conveyances of real Q state
valued in the millions to his four skaters,
Mary T.. A. Wendell, Rebecca A. d..
Swope, Ella v. Won +. Wendell and
Georgianna q. X. Wendell. Twenty.o one
parcels are listed in this category. but
without their location. The app aisal
also shows that Mr.. Wendell had bank
deposits amounting to more than NtO.-
900 when he died. but IDS wearing zap
psrel was worth only $40.
New Point Raised.
The statement that the value of The
Wendell estate was between 900
and 800. 900, 900 was filed in the West
chester Surrogate's court when Miss
Ella V. Won i. Wendell and Mrs. Rebecca
A. II. Wendell Swope filed their bonds
a administrators OF their brothers. es-
tate. IL was then expected that the
inheritance tax would be the lar sest
ever collected. The state Comptroller
will now try TO prove that Mr.. WendeI
made the transfers of property TO his
sisters in anticipation OF death, to es-
cape the State tax. Proof of that point
will derend on the time OF the transfers
Mr.. Fhnno SAID a new point In trans
fer tax proceedings will be decided a,
the Wemdel hearing before state Trans
fer Tax Appraiser William G. Clark
John II Wendel. father of the ate Johi
q. Weniel. II seems authorized the lat
ter to appoint his real estate 10 his sis:
tiers by deed or will. In 1870 John @
Wendell decided certain property to his
sisters. Othcr properties now said e
comprise 9he bulk OF the Wtndel estate
have beeL transferred since then an,
the State Comptroller. said Mr.. Fenno
will try to prove that the power of ap
poln,ment by deeds made the transfer
taxable by the State.
A search Of the Registers office II
January revealed the transfer OF forty
i've parcels of real sstate by John q
Wendell to his sisters within one yea
OF his DEATH. which occurred in his eigh,
tieth year. Isfore those transfers JOIN
G.. Wendell held In his own right abou'
nifty parcels. The forty-five transferred
comprised twenty-thNe OF these nifty
and others from the estate holdings Of
his father and OF his sister, Josephin,
J. :. Wendell.
Mr.. Rabell's schedule shows that Mr..
Wendell owned forty-seven parcels In
New York and an undivided half In
terest in the property at lSl Broadway
also property at Tarrytown, valued at
S4O.5O0 at Dobbs Ferry. valued at
$1,000, and real estate at Quogue, l.. l..
worth sl6,550.
H.. ls-,a- -