Court Opinion

ID: 9418188
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:12:00.130228+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:21:56.702895
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice McKenna,
with whom concurred The Chief Justice and Me. Justice Day,
dissenting.
I am unable to agree to the judgment of the court. I regret that time does not serve to give adequate expression to my views or to consider opposing ones. Some of the elements of dissent I can only hastily give. The question of the interpretation of a statute is, however, seldom in broad compass. The purpose is to get at the meaning of the words, and fortunately there, are well-known rules *225to assist the process. The first of these is the motive of the law. Whatever construction advances that carries a presumption of truth.
There must be a strict or liberal construction according to the purpose of the law, the former if it imposes burdens, the latter if it relieves from them. The contentions of the Government, it seems to me, reverse this order. Their consequences seem to me to be: The law is a taxing one, is concededly of doubtful meaning, it must nevertheless be construed against the taxpayer. It was intended to relieve from burdens, its ambiguities must be resolved to retain them.
These contradictions between intention and result are intensified if we consider the general purpose of the law proclaimed at the time of its enactment. It was intended as a repeal of war revenue taxation. In other words, to take from a time of peace burdens laid in a time of war. A worthy purpose, I submit, and based on wisest considerations of governmental policy, and not to be defeated or impaired in any of its details by resolving the uncertainties of language against it.
There was emphatic and illustrative unanimity in the Committee of Ways and Means of the House of Representatives that reported and recommended the law. There was a difference of opinion in the committee as to the extent of the reduction which should be made, resulting from a difference in other views of its members, but there was no difference as to the necessity of a reduction of revenue.
The. majority of the committee recommended a reduction of $73,000,000; the minority was of opinion it should be $123,000,000. In the reduction there was a special item of legacies. The figures need no comment. They display the purpose of Congress. Words, however, were added to emphasize it. “Sound business judgment,” it was Said, “dictates a sweeping induction of our revenues.” *226The final word of recommendation of the measure was' that “every consideration of prudence commends” its “wisdom.” This then was the purpose of the measure, sanctioned by the highest considerations of judgment and wisdom. Should it not prevail, certainly have dominance in the interpretation of the law passed to-effect it? Even as to a live and continuing law, the rule of interpretation is that taxes must be expressed in clear and unambiguous language. If there be doubt it is to be resolved against the Government. Eidman v. Martinez, 184 U. S. 578. Such a rule of interpretation certainly should be applicable to a statute repealing taxation. To what an anomalous contrast does its disregard bring us? Shall a’ law passed to supply the wants of a deficient treasury have a more restrictive construction than one passed against the burden of a constantly increasing surplus? Indeed, this case presents even a stronger contrast. Under the rule of interpretation announced in Eidman v. Martinez a law providing for the exigencies of war cannot prevail, against the right of the taxpayer to resist taxation, the authority for which is equivocally expressed. But peace legislation, it seems, may claim a moré determined power, though it have no necessities but the reduction of revenue, though it proclaims that purpose and is urged to it by governmental policy. It may have a double sense and yet be unfaltering in its exactions, resisting presumptions of law and legal rules, but a war measure may not.
I cannot believe that Congress intended to leave uncertainty, or, if uncertainty should inadvertently result, that it was to be resolved to retain taxes and not abolish them. And it had the means of certainty, and, I must assume, availed itself of them. Prior cases had given it examples of the interpretation of taxing laws — indeed, of the special kind of taxing laws which it was repealing, and we may be su re that it had those examples in mind in fixing -the scope of its enactment. And this is in accordance *227with a familiar rule of interpretation which this court has applied and necessarily will be called upon to apply again. That is that when provisions which have received judicial interpretation are used in a statute, tliey are supposed to be used with the meaning that had been given to them. Under any other rule judicial decisions would make “not light but darkness visible.”
In Clapp v. Mason, 94 U. S. 589, a statute passed in 1864 subjected to a tax legacies and successions. Under it a tax was assessed upon certain real estate devised by Mason to his widow* for her life, or until she should cease to occupy the same as a place of residence, and upon her death, or ceasing to occupy the same, to Clapp. The widow occupied the real estate until June 17, 1872. Mason, the testator, died December 4, 1867; the tax was assessed on the fifteenth of May, 1873. It was paid on the thirty-first, under protest, to avoid distraint or other forcible process to collect the same.
Under the statute of 1864 the tax would have, been a proper one, but by a statute passed July 14, 1870, the tax imposed by the former act was repealed. The repealing clause, however, continued the provisions of former acts levying and collecting all taxes properly assessed or liable to be assessed or accruing under their provisions. It provided also that “any act done, right accrued or penalty incurred under former acts” should be saved.
The collector insisted that the tax upon the succession in question had accrued before the repeal of the act of 1864, that is,'upon the death of the testator. The devisees contended that it did. not accrue until they came into possession of the land, and before that occurred, it was asserted, the ^statute assessing the tax had been repealed.
The court stated the question to be when the right to the tax accrued, “at the death of the testator, or at the death of the widow, when the plaintiff became entitled to the possession of the land?” In answer to the question the *228court conceded that the will of Mason conveyed an estate to William P. Mason and Charles H. Parker, (those who took after the widow,) and that, although they were not entitled to immediate possession, they had a vested estate.. And it was conceded that not only vested estates, but those in expectancy, were within the statute. The admission, however, the court said, did not aid them in deciding the point before them, as the question of time still arose, When was the vested estate taxable?
The question was answered by saying, after' a consideration of the provisions of the statute, that it would be difficult to carry out its “system in any other manner than by the provision that the succession should not be deemed taxable until such time as-the successor should be entitled to its possession.” It was further said:
“The act of 1864 contains no statement or intimation that this duty creates any lien upon the land, or that any obligation arises, or that any right accrues at a period earlier than that fixed for the payment of the duty. See sections 133, 137.
* * * * * * * *
“It is manifest that the right does not accrue until the duty can be demanded, that is, when it is made payable; in other words, at the end of thirty days after becoming entitled to possession.”
The questions were reexamined and decided the. same way in Mason v. Sargent, 104 U. S. 689. The latter case, however, exhibits more clearly the applicability of the principles discussed to the case at bar. Mason died December 4, 1867. He bequeathed by his will certain personal property to the plaintiffs in the action in trust for his widow, and upon her death one-half to William P. Mason and one-hálf to Eliza R. Cabot. The widow died in 1872. In April, 1873, the tax in question was assessed. It was. paid under protest and plaintiffs brought the action for the refunding of the tax on the ground that the property *229did not vest ,in possession of the legatees until the death of the testator’s widow, which occurred after the repeal of the legacy succession tax act, and that the tax had not accrued so as to come within the saving clause of the act of repeal. .
The act of June 3Q, 1864, c. 173, 13 Stat. 223, 285, subjected legacies and distributive shares of personal property to a tax passing from a decedent, in the hands of an executor or administrator, varying in amount according to the degree of relationship of the beneficiary to the decedent. It further provided that the tax or duty should be payable whenever the party interested in the legacy or shares should become entitled to the possession and enjoyment thereof. The repealing act contained the saving clause which has been already set put.
The collector contended that the tax had accrued when' the repealing act took effect, October 1, 1870. The opposing contention was that the tax did not become a claim in favor of the Government until the legacy itself became payable, which was not until after the death of the widow, June 17, 1872. The latter contention was sustained and the tax declared to have been illegally demanded.
It was decided that the legacy was the subject of the tax; that it was exempt during the life of the widow, and only became payable upon her death; that it did “not become a subject of taxation until the right” accrued “to reduce it to possession.” The provision of the law which required the trustee to give written notice to the assessor of his trust within thirty days after he should take charge of it was declared “not material to the argument,” arid that the’provision of the act of 1864, that the tax or duty thereby imposed should be a lien or charge upon the property bequeathed for twenty years, or until the same be paid within that period, determined nothing as to the time when the tax accrued.
Clapp v. Mason was cited as applicable, and the court *230concluded as follows:' “No right to the payment of the tax had accrued at the date when the repealing act took effect; and, therefore, none to collect it can be deduced from its saving clauses.”
Clapp v. Mason and Mason v. Sargent were followed as determinative of when, under § 7 of the act of April 12, 1902 (the act now in question), should be regarded as “.imposed” in Eidman v. Tilghman by Circuit Judge La-combe at circuit, and also by the Circuit Court of Appeals of the Second Circuit. 131 Fed. Rep. 652; 136 Fed. Rep. 141. The judgment was affirmed by this court by an equal division of its members. 203 U. S. 580.
A distinction is.made between those cases and that at bar, and there is borne distinction in the facts, but not such, in my opinion, as to take this case out of the principle announced in them. They were made to turn upon the fact that the tax or duty was upon the legacy or distributive shares. In this they were applied in Sturges v. United States, 117 U. S. 363, and followed in Knowlton v. Moore, 178 U. S. 41, and Vanderbilt v. Eidman, 196 U. S. 480, in which the act of June 13, 1898, was interpreted. It is said in Knowlton v. Moore, “that the provisions of the act of 1864 were in mind when” the act of June 13, 1898, was drafted. The cases of Clapp v. Mason and Mason v. Sargent were decided when that act was drafted. Is it not a fair inference that it and its repealing act were intended to have the same meaning and interpretation which had been given to its prototype and its repealing act?
Those cases were also made to turn on the fact that as the tax was upon the legacy or distributive share, there could be no tax nor claim in favor of the Government until such legacy or share was vested in the possession and enjoyment of the legatee or distributee. In this again they were followed in Vanderbilt v. Eidman. And, it seems to me, therefore, that there is such resemblance of the provisions of the act of 1864 to those of the act of *231June 13, 1898, as to make the cases interpreting the former decisive precedents of the meaning of the latter.
The time of payment is in both acts at a date subsequent to the death of the testator. In the act of 1898, one year after his death;-in the act of 1864, when the legacy came into possession and enjoyment. This difference in time can make no difference with the principle that the tax does not accrue, until it becomes due and payable. And, I submit is not “imposed” until then, does not become a claim in favor of the Government until then, and not being such is not saved by § 8 of the repealing act. The lien does not attach until then. By § 30 of the act of 1898 the tax is due one year after the death of the testator, and is secured by a lien, but when the lien attaches is hot stated. There is the same silence in the act of 1864. The omission was supplied by Mason v. Sargent, which declared that the lien presupposed the existence of the tax and only attached when the tax accrued. This must also b.e the meaning of § 30, and we have a further parallel between the acts completing the application of the cited cases. Mark, too, the words of § 8- of the repealing act, associating the tax and the lien, showing how closely the legislative mind followed the judicial decisions and gave its legislation, as I think, the certain meaning that the interpretation of the prior enactments afforded. Section 8 provides as follows: “That all taxes or duties imposed by section 29 . . . shall be subject as to lien, charge, collection and otherwise to the provisions of section 30. . . .”
An argument is made to show that a tax may be said to be imposed, though it be not due and payable. The argument is answered, I think, by what I have said. A tax is not imposed by a mere provision for it. Illustrations of this will readily come to mind besides those afforded by the cited cases. However, I will not attempt to further review the contentions of the Government or the opposing *232ones, nor consider from which the greater embarrassments, if any, will result. The force of the conflicting contentions, and of course they have force, establish the ambiguity of the statute and the different ^meanings that can be ascribed to. it. In such situation the rule of interpretation which I have announced and which I have shown is sanctioned by this court, should turn decision against the tax. I will not quote the Circuit Courts and the Circuit Courts of Appeal, which have so thought and have pronounced against the Government. They make a body of authority, persuasive in their numbers and rank. And this court has divided in opinion. I do not mention the fact as a circumstance which should preclude consideration of the question, but I bring it forward as an element of some power in the discussion. It may not have the “true, fixed and resting quality” of stare decisis, but it has nevertheless strong appeal and persuasion. It has persisted through quite a period of time and against many attempts to disturb it. It is certainly something more patent than inaction. It gave authority to the decision of the Circuit Court of Appeals in Eidman v. Tilghman, and that again determined other judgments and became a rule of decision for the settlement of estates.
I think the question certified should be answered in the affirmative.
I am authorized to say that The Chief Justice and Mr. Justice Day concur in this dissent.