Court Opinion

ID: 9596140
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:46:29.042349+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:08:04.534110
License: Public Domain

Justice McEWAN,
concurring.
I concur in the result because I do not believe the paragraph “SECOND”1 said or can be reasonably interpreted to have said that the wife was to receive one-half of the estate free from the burden of taxes. The most that can be said for this paragraph is that it identifies the estate of which the wife was to receive one-half. There are at least two estates which come to mind, one being the probate estate, and one being the adjusted gross estate as determined for federal estate tax purposes. These estates may or may not be identical. The estate as determined for federal estate tax purposes may be larger than and include more properties than the probate estate. In fact, there may be an “estate” for federal estate tax purposes and no probate estate. The act recognizes this possibility and provides at § 2-339(a), W.S. 1957 (1971 Cum.Supp.).
“ * * * If there are no probate proceedings the probate court of the county wherein the decedent was domiciled at death upon the application of the person required to pay the tax shall determine the apportionment of the tax.”
It should also be noted the appellant argued that under Wyoming’s Uniform Estate Tax Apportionment Act2 the wife, had she survived, would have, due to the marital deduction provisions of the Internal *1240Revenue Code, taken one-half of the estate as determined for federal estate taxes free from the burden of any federal estate tax. However, the appellants may not avail themselves of the marital deduction provisions, and thus the statute in that regard has no application to them.
The majority opinion applies the definition of “estate” as contained in § 2-337, W.S.19S7 (1971 Cum.Supp.), to the term “estate” as contained in the will. The pertinent portions of § 2-337 are:
“In this act: (a) ‘Estate’ means the gross estate of a decedent as determined for the purpose of federal estate tax.”
I do not believe the definition of “estate” as contained in the act can be used to determine the meaning of “estate” where there is an ambiguity in a will.

. “SECOND: In the event that my wife, Emma N. Hilliar, survives me, I give, devise and bequeath unto her one-lialf of my adjusted gross estate as determined for Federal Income Tax purposes, ns her whole and separate property.”

. Section 2-341, W.S.1957 (1971 Cum. Supp.).