United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Schwab v. Doyle, 258 U.S. 529 (1922)

Schwab v. Doyle

No. 200

Argued April 17, 1922

Decided May 1, 1922

258 U.S. 529

Syllabus

1.Laws are not to be considered as applying to cases that arose before their passage unless that intention be clearly expressed. P. 258 U. S. 534.

2. The Act of September 8, 1916, c. 463, § 202, 39 Stat. 777, imposed a tax on the transfer of the net estate of every decedent dying after its passage

"to the extent of any interest therein of which the decedent has at any time made a transfer, or with respect to which he has created a trust, in contemplation of or intended to take effect in possession or enjoyment at or after his death,"

excepting bona fide sales for a fair consideration in money or money's worth, and further declared, that

"any transfer of a material part of his property in the nature of a final disposition or distribution thereof made by the decedent within two years prior to his death without such a consideration shall, unless shown to the contrary, be deemed to have been made in contemplation of death."

Held that the act does not apply to transactions consummated before its passage. P. 258 U. S. 534.

3. The reenactment of these provisions with an added provision that the transfer or trust should be taxed whether made before or after the passage of the act (February 24, 1919, c. 18, § 402(c), 40 Stat. 1097) is not a construction of the earlier act as retroactive, but the expression of a new purpose. P. 258 U. S. 536.

4. Tax measures are strictly construed. P. 258 U. S. 536.

269 F.3d 1 reversed.

Error to a judgment of the circuit court of appeals affirming a judgment for the defendant in error in an action to recover a sum exacted by him as an estate tax.

Page 258 U. S. 531