Court Opinion

ID: 4493261
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2020-01-17 22:03:51.507409+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:03:59.864499
License: Public Domain

LaNsdoN,
dissenting: I am unable to agree with the prevailing
opinion. Under the laws of California, which govern here as to rules of property, it is well established that title to devised property vests in the legatee at the date of the death of the prior owner. Probate Code, secs. 28, 300, 581. In Murphy v. Crouse, 135 Cal. 14, the Supreme Court of California held that the common law doctrine that the title to personal property passes to the executor and not to the heir has never prevailed in California and that in that state both real and personal property descend directly to the beneficiary named in the will, subject only to the qualified right in the personal representative who holds it for purposes of administration. In Western Pacific Co. v. Godfrey, 166 Cal. 346, the court held that “ The legatee does not derive title from the decree of distribution but from the will, which takes effect immediately upon the death of the testator. The decree of distribution does not create the title. It merely declares that title accrued under the will.” This principle was nationalized by the Supreme Court in Brewster v. Gage, 280 U.S. 327, and has been applied by the Board in many decisions.
The securities sold were a part of the estate of the petitioner’s mother at the date of her death. In the light of the authorities above cited it is perfectly clear that an undivided one-fourth interest therein vested in the petitioner at March 28, 1926. I think it immaterial that such interest was not identified or segregated from the corpus of the estate until May 21, 1927, the date of distribution. From the moment of her mother’s death, title to one fourth of all the securities left by the decedent vested in the petitioner. The executor or personal representative of the estate held the property only as the agent of the actual owner or of the probate court. His possession was the possession of the heirs. California Civil Code, sec. 1581. His duty is to marshal and conserve the assets of the estate and, under the direction and order of the proper court, distribute them to their real owners. Without the consent of the court he cannot convert a dollar’s worth of the assets in his charge into new investments. Subjected to such limitations, it is plain that he holds only for the owners and that his acts are theirs.
*1075In support of his determination the respondent relies on sections 113 (a) (5) and on 101 (c) (8) (B) of the Revenue Act of 1928, which provides that to determine the two year period “there shall be included the period for which such property was held by any other person, if under the provisions of section 113, such property has, for the purpose of determining gain or loss from a sale or exchange, the same basis in whole or in part in his hands as it would have in the hands of such other person.” I cannot see the applicability of this provision to the situation here. In my opinion the securities in question were acquired by the petitioner at the date of her mother’s death and held by her until the date of the sale, and so, for the purpose of this proceeding, were never held by any other person.
Trammell agrees with this'dissent.