State v. Mollier

Citations

• 96 Kan. 514
• 152 P. 771
• 1915 Kan. LEXIS 422

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Inheritance Tax- — Property Transmitted by Will Subject to Inheritance Tax. Section 1 of chapter 248 of the Laws of 1909 (Gen. Stat. 1909, § 9265), imposed a succession tax upon the right to take property by will or by the intestacy laws or by transfer made in contemplation of death. The provision in section 1 exempting from the operation of the act the case of a “bona fide purchase for full consideration in money or money’s worth” was intended to apply solely to transfers by deed or grant made in contemplation of death, and has no application to the transmission of property 'by will.</p> <p>2. Same — Property Involved Passed by Will — Not by Contract. A will was executed in 1901 bequeathing all the property of the testator to his niece, in pursuance of a contract entered into between them many years before, by which she agreed to live with and care for him as long as he lived. When he died; in 1911, the contract had been fully performed. Held, that the property passed by the will and not by the contract, and is liable to the succession tax imposed by the inheritance, tax law of 1909.</p> <p>3. Inheritance Tax Law — Not in Conflict with Federal Constitution. Whatever right accrued to the defendant under the contract in this case was acquired subject to the power of the legislature to regulate the devolution of property by will, and the act of 1909, imposing an inheritance tax upon property passing by will, is not, as applied to the property which passed to the defendant, in conflict with the provision of the federal constitution designed to protect the obligation of contracts.</p>