Summary
affirming determination that the date of death of decedent is the date from which the net value of the estate is to be ascertained
Summary of this case from Estate of Reddert v. U.S.Opinion
Argued May 28th, 1941.
Decided September 19th, 1941.
On appeal from a decree advised by Vice-Chancellor Stein, whose opinion is reported in 128 N.J. Eq. 120.
Mr. William V. Breslin, for the appellant.
Mr. James E.M. Tams, for the complainant-respondent.
Mr. Horace C. Jeffers, for the respondent Ann Cooper Hewitt.
Mr. Borden D. Whiting, for the respondent Cooper Union.
We conclude that the decree under review should be affirmed, and are in entire accord with the conclusions and reasoning of the court below.
The opinion of Vice-Chancellor Stein was filed on August 30th, 1940, at which time an important question of fact remained unsettled, viz., whether at the death of the widow (which the Vice-Chancellor correctly held was the determinative date as of which the net value of the estate was to be ascertained) the net value was less or more than a million dollars. Just five months later, on January 30th, 1941, there was a further hearing, at which it was settled without substantial question that the value of the estate at the death of the widow was less than a million and consequently under the codicil the trust fund to be set aside was decreed to be $50,000. It is the decree then made, and fixing that amount, that is before us on this appeal and is now affirmed.
For affirmance — THE CHIEF-JUSTICE, PARKER, CASE, BODINE, DONGES, HEHER, PERSKIE, PORTER, COLIE, DEAR, WELLS, RAFFERTY, HAGUE, THOMPSON, JJ. 14.
For reversal — None.