Estate of Hendricks

California Court of Appeal Sep 14, 1970 No. 12215Published

Before: Friedman

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Holding. The court held that in the absence of a clear and unambiguous direction in the will to the contrary, federal estate and state inheritance taxes must be prorated among the beneficiaries as required by statute, and extrinsic evidence cannot be used to establish such a direction.

Issues

Whether a testator's intent to shift the burden of death taxes from specific legatees to the residuary estate can be established through extrinsic evidence when the will is silent on the matter.
Whether the absence of an express provision in the will regarding tax payment requires statutory proration of estate and inheritance taxes.

Disposition. reversed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“Probate Code section 970 requires that a direction against proration appear in the will. It points to the will document as the exclusive medium for an expression of the testator's intent to prohibit proration.”

“Since there is no expression in Mrs. Hendricks' will designating a source for the payment of death taxes, the taxes must be prorated.”

11 Cal.App.3d 204 (1970) 89 Cal. Rptr. 748 Estate of ELIZABETH WINONA HENDRICKS, Deceased.

GEORGE HAMMON HENDRICKS, Petitioner and Respondent,

SHRINERS HOSPITALS FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN, Objector and Appellant.

Docket No. 12215. Court of Appeals of California, Third District.

September 14, 1970. [206] COUNSEL

Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro, Noble K. Gregory, Robert W. Morrison, George C. Fisher and Robert L. Sullivan, Jr., for Objector and Appellant.

Joseph P. Van Den Berg for Petitioner and Respondent.

OPINION

FRIEDMAN, J.

This appeal embodies a controversy between a residuary charitable legatee and relatives of the testatrix receiving specific bequests under the will. The relatives seek to have federal estate taxes and state inheritance taxes paid from the residue, and the probate court upheld their position. The charitable legatee, Shriners Hospitals for Crippled Children, appeals, contending that the death taxes should be prorated against the entire estate.

Elizabeth Hendricks, the testatrix, executed a 1954 will and a 1956 codicil which had the effect of leaving her personal belongings to several relatives; two parcels of Butte County real estate to certain relatives and their children; an interest in a corporate-held farm to certain relatives; the residue in trust to a bank, the bulk of the residue's income to be paid to the Shriners Hospitals. Neither the will nor codicil contained any express provision for the payment of death taxes.

Probate Code section 970 calls for equitable proration of the federal estate tax among the persons interested in the estate "except in a case where a testator otherwise directs in his will...." Section 970 expresses a state public policy that estate taxes be prorated. (1) "... [A]pportionment of the taxes is the general rule to which exception is to be made only when there is a clear and unambiguous direction to the contrary. Ambiguities are to be resolved in favor of apportionment." (Estate of Armstrong (1961) 56 Cal.2d 796, 802 [17 Cal. Rptr. 138, 366 P.2d 490].) As the

Estate of Hendricks

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OPINION

FRIEDMAN, J.

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