Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/260/647/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 20:20:38+00:00

Document:
1. A state law which, in order to reach property which has escaped taxation, taxes the estates of decedents for a period anterior to date of death, but allows proportionate deductions where a personal representative shows that taxes were paid, or property was not owned, by his decedent within the period, does not deprive the creditors and distributees of the estates of their property without due process of law. P. 260 U. S. 650. Gen.Stats. Conn.191, § 1190, sustained.
2. The delinquency of a decedent in not paying taxes may be penalized under the state taxing power by inflicting upon his estate a penalty measured by the discretion of the legislature. P. 260 U. S. 651.
3. The constitutional prohibition of ex post facto laws is inapplicable to a retroactive tax penalty. P. 260 U. S. 652.
Error to a judgment of the Superior Court of Connecticut, entered upon direction of the Supreme Court of Errors, in a proceeding to review a tax assessment.
"All taxable property of any estate upon which no town or city tax has been assessed . . . or upon which no tax has been paid to the state during the year preceding the date of the death of the decedent shall be liable to a tax of two percentum per annum on the appraised inventory value of such property for the five years next preceding the date of the death of such decedent, provided, the executor or administrator of any estate may, by furnishing evidence to the satisfaction of the tax commissioner that a state, town, or city tax has been paid on any of such property for a portion of said five years or that the ownership of such property has not been in the decedent for a portion of said period, obtain a proportionate deduction from the tax hereby imposed. . . ."
"Any executor, administrator or representative of such an estate aggrieved by the action of the tax commissioner in determining such tax, if unable to agree with the tax commissioner upon the amount of such tax as provided in § 1190, may, within ninety days from the time of the filing by the tax commissioner of such statement or corrected statement with the judge of probate, make application in the nature of an appeal therefrom to the superior court of the county in which such probate court is located which shall be accompanied by a citation to said tax commissioner to appear before such court."
by the probate judge to the tax commissioner, that officer filed with the state treasurer a statement that there was due from the estate of the decedent to the State of Connecticut, by virtue of its statutes, $10,286.39, and made claim for such sum.
Plaintiffs in error, within the time provided in § 1192, made, to quote from the language of the section, "application in the nature of an appeal" from the claim to the superior court of the county in which the probate court was located, in accordance with § 1192.
The tax commissioner, acting for the state, demurred "to the reasons of application and appeal," and the superior court, by consent of the parties, reserved the questions of law arising upon the demurrer "for the advice of the Supreme Court of Errors . . . as to what judgment should be entered" on the demurrer. In fulfillment of the "reservation," the Supreme Court of Errors took the case, adjudged the statute to be valid, and advised the superior court "to sustain the demurrer and to dismiss the application."
The superior court, in execution of that direction, sustained the demurrer and entered judgment dismissing the "application in the nature of an appeal." To review that judgment is the purpose of this writ of error. Manifestly, however, it is the views and reasoning of the Supreme Court of Errors that must engage our attention, as they constituted the foundation of the judgment of the superior court.
"to compel estates to pay to the state a sum which shall approximately equal the taxes which the property of the estate has escaped paying while in the hands of the decedent,"
and "the single point raised by the demurrer," the court further said, "is that the statutes which authorize this action of the commissioner are unconstitutional."
"creditors and distributees of this estate of their property without due process of law (a) by exacting a penalty from them for the failure of the decedent to list his property for taxation, and (b) by creating against them a presumption of guilt for such omission."
"rest on the unfounded premise that the property of this estate upon the decease of the owner passed to the distributees subject to the payment of the just debts of the estate."
"The right to dispose of one's property by will and the right to have it disposed of by law after decease is created by statute, and therefore the state may impose such conditions upon the exercise of this right as it may determine. Stone Appeal, 74 Conn. 301, 302; Hatheway v. Smith, 79 Conn. 506."
See also Plumer v. Coler, 178 U. S. 115, 178 U. S. 134; Knowlton v. Moore, 178 U. S. 41.
"this statute is a penalty imposed upon the estate because of the delinquency of the decedent, and no less permissible than the penalty tax against the decedent kept alive by statutory sanction."
Plaintiffs in error do not contest the principle expressed, but deny its application by asserting: (1) there was no debt owed by decedent, (2) no action under the statute arose against her; (3) no penalty had been incurred by her because, as long as she lived, the statute was inapplicable to her; (4) it is not a tax for its primary object is punishment, not revenue.
The assertions are unjustified. There was an evasion of duty by decedent, and the obligation she incurred, and should have discharged, was imposed upon her estate, and legally imposed, for out of her estate it can only be discharged. The payment of taxes is an obvious and insistent duty, and its sanction is usually punitive. The Connecticut statute is not, therefore, in its penal effects, unique, nor are they out of relation or proportion to a decedent's delinquency.
in its discretion, and in accordance with the principle we sustained a penalty of 50 percent of the taxes assessed against the telegraph company and unpaid by it.
Section 1190 was passed in 1915, and went into effect August 1st of that year. Decedent died in May, 1919. Plaintiffs in error contend, therefore, that in one of the years (1914) of the five of omission to pay taxes, "the only penalty provided by law therefor was the addition of 10 percent to the assessed valuation of the omitted property." Therefore, it is the further contention, the attempt of the section is "to reach into the past and provide greater punishment than the law did when the crime was committed,'" and hence incurs constitutional prohibition as an ex post facto law.
The contention is untenable. The penalty of the statute was not in punishment of a crime, and it is only to such that the constitutional prohibition applies. It has no relation to retrospective legislation of any other description. Johannessen v. United States, 225 U. S. 227, 225 U. S. 242.
The final contention of plaintiffs in error is that the statute can only be sustained on the assumption that, "in the last analysis, the property of deceased persons belongs to the state."
The contention is extreme. The power of taxation, with its accessorial sanctions, is a power of government, and all property is subject to it, and it is a proper exercise of it to satisfy out of his estate the delinquency of a property owner. It is so complete that it does not need the assumption of universal ownership by the state to justify it.
* Public Acts of Conn.1919, c. 50, p. 2713.

References: § 1190
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