Abstract & Title Guaranty Co. v. State

MELVIN, J.

Plaintiff sued under the provisions of subdivision “A” et seq. of section 29 of the inheritance tax law of 1905 (Stats. 1905, pp. 341, 351) to quiet its title to the real property described in the complaint, against the state’s claim of lien of an inheritance tax. Defendant by its answer averred that the deed upon which plaintiff’s claim of title was founded had been made by the grantor in contemplation of death, and to take the place of a testamentary disposition of the realty. After trial upon the issues joined judgment was given in favor of the state. Plaintiff appeals from the judgment and from an order denying its motion for a new trial.

[693]

Plaintiff’s asserted title is derived through mesne conveyances from the Hely Estate Company, a corporation of which Gorges Hely’s three sons and only heirs are the sole stockholders, each holding an equal proportion of the stock. The important document upon which plaintiff’s alleged title depends is a deed from Gorges Hely to the Hely Estate Company dated July 10, 1908, and recorded soon thereafter. Plaintiff offered this deed in evidence. In it the grantor Gorges Hely was described as “the'party of the first part,” and the corporation as “the party of the second part.” It provided that “for and in consideration of the sum of ten dollars gold coin, to him in hand paid by the party of the second part, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, as a further and additional consideration the agreement on the part of the party of the second part to and with the first party that the second party will care for, maintain and support in a proper and suitable manner during the balance of his life the first party, said first party does by these presents, grant, bargain, sell, convey and confirm unto said party of the second part.” After introducing at the trial the other record evidence of its title, plaintiff placed J. H. Hely on the witness-stand, and he testified that following the 10th of June, 1908, the Hely Estate Company commenced to pay off the indebtedness on the land described in the deed. He enumerated payments amounting to more than seventeen thousand dollars, some of them made before but more of them after the grant to the corporation by Gorges Hely. He testified: “The amount of the indebtedness of my father, Gorges Hely, at the time this deed was made to the Hely Estate Company was, I think, about $23,000. ’ ’ He did not state, however, that the assumption of the debts of Gorges Hely was a part of the consideration for the conveyance of the land to his corporation. Plaintiff then rested.