Estate of Gill

This is an appeal by the State Controller from a judgment refusing to impose an inheritance tax upon an inter vivos transfer of real property by Mary Terressa Gill, deceased.

Mrs. Gill died in 1966. On June 26, 1969 Jane Hagny, decedent's daughter, filed a petition for determination of inheritance tax due on account of the transfer of a house by decedent to petitioner in 1951. [1] (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 14551.) The court appointed an inheritance tax appraiser as referee. (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 14552.) Following a hearing on the petition, the referee filed a report appraising the property at $62,000 at the date of decedent's death. The report further determined that the transfer had been made without valuable consideration, and hence was taxable under sections 13641 to 13648, inclusive, of the Revenue and Taxation Code.

Petitioner filed objections to the report (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 14510) contending, inter alia, that the decedent neither occupied the property nor retained any interest therein at the time of her death.

At the hearing on the objections (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 14511), evidence was produced showing: In 1935 petitioner and her husband, William Hagny,…