Kuchel v. Wells Fargo Bank

NOURSE, P. J. The ease is one of statutory construction. The issue is the interpretation of section 13842 of the Revenue and Taxation Code exempting from state inheritance tax property transferred to local and foreign charitable institutions. The appeal is heard on an agreed statement.

Josephine Bendheim died testate on June 13, 1947, a resident of Santa Ciará County. Her will contained among other provisions the following: “Thirteenth: I give, devise and bequeath unto Wells Fargo Bank & Union Trust Co., two-ninths (2/9ths) of the said rest, residue and remainder of any and all property of which I may die seised or possessed, in Trust upon the following trusts and for the following purposes :

“To receive the income therefrom and to pay the net income therefrom monthly unto my sister Amt Steinhart Braden during her lifetime, and upon her death to distribute one-half of the corpus of said trust to the Mother Church, The First Church op Christ Scientist, Boston, to be used one-half for the Christian Science Pacific Coast Sanitarium in San Francisco, and one-half for the Pleasant View Home, Christian Science Home, in Concord, New Hampshire, . . . .”

The inheritance tax appraiser found that the amount thus set aside to the home in New Hampshire was $19,106.83, allowed an exemption of $50 and charged a tax of $1,333.98. Objections to the report having been made the controversy was heard in the superior court and evidence was received showing that the Mother Church was a religious corporation organized under the laws of the State of Massachusetts, engaged in religious and charitable work only, that Massachusetts is a “reciprocal” state within the meaning of section 13842 of the California Revenue and Taxation Code; that one of such charities of the Mother Church is the Pleasant View Home located at Concord, New Hampshire, which is a corporation organized under the laws of the State of New Hampshire solely for the purpose of charitable activities under the direction of the Mother Church. The State of New Hampshire is a “non-reciprocal” state. The parties agree “that said Pleasant View Home (said New Hampshire corporation) is and was the organ or instrumentality through which said the Mother Church (said Massachusetts corporation) carries on its Pleasant View Home activities in New Hampshire; that said Pleasant View Home is, however, entirely administered by said The Mother Church, from Boston, Massachusetts, and the treasury of the fund for said Pleasant View Home is in [400]and administered from Boston by officials of said the Mother Church, the only personnel at said Pleasant View Home being its superintendent, nurses, dining room and kitchen help.”