Hancock v. Hunt

SHAW, J.

The facts upon which the superior court made its order denying petitioner’s application for the writ of mandate, and from which order he appeals, are as follows: Ida Hancock Ross died on March 15, 1913, leaving an estate of inheritance to G. Allan Hancock, petitioner herein. For the purpose of fixing the amount of tax which should be paid upon the estate so inherited, a proceeding was instituted in the superior court to determine the value thereof, in which contest the court, on February 27, 1914, made an order fixing the amount of such tax at $159,354.90, which order, on an appeal taken by the state prior to September, 1914, was affirmed.

(Estate of Ross,

171 Cal. 64, [151 Pac. 1138].) Under the provisions of the Inheritance Tax Act, the eighteen months within which such tax might be paid without interest or penalty expired on September 15, 1914. On September 8, 1914, after the perfecting of the appeal, petitioner served upon the proper officers and agents of the state an offer in writing “to pay to the state of California the sum of $159,-354.90 as payment in full of the inheritance tax due to the state of California upon the interest inherited by the undersigned, G. Allan Hancock, in the estate of said deceased and under the last will and testament of said deceased, said sum of $159,354.90 having been fixed as the tax due to the state of California upon the said inheritance by an order of the superior court of the county of Los Angeles, state of California, duly made in the above-entitled matter on February 27, 1914. You will further take notice that in the city of Los Angeles on the fourteenth day of September, 1914, the undersigned will formally offer and tender said sum of $159,354.90 to John N. Hunt, the treasurer of Los Angeles County, as payment in full of the inheritance tax due to the state of California on said inheritance of the undersigned, G. Allan Hancock, from the estate of, and under the last will and testament of, Ida Hancock Ross, deceased; and will demand a valid receipt in full for said tax.” Pursuant to this notice, and on the day specified therein, petitioner did tender

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to the county treasurer, in lawful money of the United States, said sum of $159,354.90 as payment of the inheritance tax due to the state of California on the property inherited by him from the estate of Ida Hancock Ross under the terms of her will, and demanded “a valid receipt in full for said tax” so ascertained and fixed by order of the court, in response to which demand the county treasurer tendered to him a receipt in the usual form and containing the usual data, except that across the face of the receipt was written the following: “Subject to appeal now pending from above order of said superior court to the Supreme Court of the State of California, made by John S. Chambers as state controller, etc.” Petitioner objected to the form of the receipt and refused to deliver the money subject to the condition so imposed, and which respondent Hunt refused to accept otherwise than subject thereto.