Cranston v. Zook

PEEK, J. Edgar T. Zook, executor of the will of Ruth S. Zook, appeals from an order of the superior court which, because certain of decedent’s grandchildren had been adopted by their stepfather, fixed the inheritance tax on bequests [493]to those grandchildren as if such bequests had been made to strangers.

The decedent was survived hy five grandchildren, three the children of her daughter Mary and two the children of her son Edgar. Prior to his mother’s death Edgar had been divorced, his former wife had remarried, and their two children had been adopted, with Edgar’s consent, by his wife’s second husband. By her will decedent recognized Edgar’s children as her grandchildren, notwithstanding their adoption, and left the same bequests to them as she did to the children of Mary. The controller classified Mary’s children as class A transferees for purposes of determining the inheritance tax, but he classified Edgar’s children as class D transferees, or strangers.1 The superior court, after hearing, overruled the executor’s objections and fixed the tax on the basis of the controller’s classifications.

Section 13307, subdivision (a) of the Revenue and Taxation Code clearly provides that those who are “lineal issue” of the decedent are class A transferees for purposes of the inheritance tax. The executor contends simply that Edgar’s children, being the children of decedent’s son, are decedent’s lineal issue. The controller grounds his opposition to this contention in the 1955 amendment to section 257 of the Probate Code, which provides in relevant part that “An adopted child shall be deemed a descendant of one who has adopted him, the same as a natural child, for all purposes of succession by, from, or through the adopting parent the same as a natural parent. An adopted child does not succeed to the estate of a natural parent when the relationship between them has been severed by adoption . . . nor does such adopted child succeed to the estate of a relative of the natural parent. . . .” (Italics added.)

The controller urges that the foregoing section, as amended, operates to broadly redefine the concept of lineal issue as it concerns adoptive relationships to the extent that an adopted child should be considered a class A transferee of its adoptive family and, to prevent advantage in adopted children, a class D transferee of its natural family.

The controller’s position requires him to deal with the fact that section 257 is limited by its express terms to matters of