Ithaca Trust Co. v. United States, 279 U.S. 151 (1929)
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U.S. Supreme Court ITHACA TRUST CO. v. UNITED STATES, 279 U.S. 151 (1929)
[Page 279 U.S. 151, 155]
lived. The question is whether the amount of the diminution, that is, the length of the postponement, is to be determined by the event as it turned out, of the widow's death within six months, or by mortality tables showing the probabilities as they stood on the day when the testator died. The first impression is that it is absurd to resort to statistical probabilities when you know the fact. But this is due to inaccurate thinking. The estate so far as may be is settled as of the date of the testator's death. See Hooper v. Bradford, 178 Mass. 95, 97, 59 N. E. 678. The tax is on the act of the testator not on the receipt of property by the legatees. Young Men's Christian Association v. Davis, 264 U.S. 47, 50, 44 S. Ct. 291; Knowlton v. Moore, 178 U.S. 41, 49, 20 S. Ct. 747; and passim; New York Trust Co. v. Eisner, 256 U.S. 345, 348, 349 S., 41 S. Ct. 506, 16 A. L. R. 660; Edwards v. Slocum, , 44 S. Ct. 293. Therefore the value of the thing to be taxed must be estimated as of the time when the act is done. But the value of property at a given time depends upon the relative intensity of the social desire for it at that time, expressed in the money that it would bring in the market. See International Harvester Co. v. Kentucky, 234 U.S. 216, 222, 34 S. Ct. 853. Like all values, as the word is used by the law, it depends largely on more or less certain prophecies of the future, and the value is no less real at that time if later the prophecy turns out false than when it comes out true. See Lewellyn v. Electric Reduction Co., 275 U.S. 243, 247, 48 S. Ct. 63; City of New York v. Sage, 239 U.S. 57, 61, 36 S. Ct. 25. Tempting as it is to correct uncertain probabilities by the now certain fact, we are of opinion that it cannot be done, but that the value of the wife's life interest must be estimated by the mortality tables. Our opinion is not changed by the necessary exceptions to the general rule specifically made by the act.
Judgment reversed.
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