Case Name: Burnet, Commissioner of Internal Revenue, v. Northern Trust Co., Executor
Court: Supreme Court of the United States
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1931-03-02
Citations: 283 U.S. 782
Docket Number: No. 535
Parties: Burnet, Commissioner of Internal Revenue, v. Northern Trust Co., Executor.
Judges: 
Reporter: United States Reports
Volume: 283
Pages: 782–783

Head Matter:
No. 535.
Burnet, Commissioner of Internal Revenue, v. Northern Trust Co., Executor.
Argued February 27, 1931.
Decided March 2, 1931.
Mr. Walter E. Hope, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, with whom Solicitor General Thacher and Messrs. Clarence M. Charest, General Counsel, and Prew Savoy, Special Attorney, Bureau of Internal Revenue, were on the brief, for petitioner.
Mr. Edward H. Blanc argued the cause, and Messrs. Theodore Schmidt, John W. Davis, Russell L. Bradford, and Frederic Ullmann filed a brief, for respondent.
Messrs. John E. Hughes and Raymond M. White, by special leave of Court, filed briefs as amid curiae.
Mr. Seth T. Cole, by special leave of Court, filed a brief on behalf of the Tax Commission of the State of New York et al. as amid curiae.

Opinion:
Per Curiam:
The question in this case is that of the construction of § 402 (c) of the Revenue Act of 1921, c. 13(5, 42 Stat. 227, 278, a provision similar to that of § 402 (c) of the Revenue Act of 1918, c. 18, 40 Stat. 1057, 1097, which has already been construed by this Court, and, in this view, there being no question of the constitutional authority of the Congress to impose prospectively a tax with respect to transfers or trusts of the sort here involved, the judgment of the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit is affirmed upon the authority of May v. Heiner, 281 U. S. 238.