Estate of Koerner

Hill, Farrer & Burrill, Carl A. Stutsman, Jr., Jack R. White and Robert P. Hess for Objector and Appellant.

Myron Siedorf, Walter H. Miller, and Bettina A. Bate for Petitioner and Respondent.

OPINION

KINGSLEY, J.

Appellant Widmann, executrix of the estate of Gregory Koerner, appeals from two orders fixing inheritance tax. In fixing the tax on the shares which appellant and her brother inherited as residuary beneficiaries, the court determined that their shares included that portion of the estate used to pay federal estate taxes on decedent's estate.

The residue of the estate was given equally to appellant and her brother, and the will also provided that all federal estate taxes were to be paid out of the residue. The federal estate tax was $734,666.90, the residue of decedent's estate after payment of federal estate taxes was $1,462,497.76, and the referee treated each residuary beneficiary as having received one-half of the residue of the estate before payment of federal estate taxes. In fact each residuary beneficiary received a smaller sum than used by the referee to compute inheritance tax, because the payment of the federal estate tax reduced the residue by a substantial…