Linde

The respondent was the widow of Herman C. Lange who died December 10, 1943. The decedent was a farmer and owned and operated vineyards near Lodi, San Joaquin County, California. He marketed his wine grapes by delivering them to cooperative marketing associations of which he and other grape growers were members. The marketing associations processed their members' grapes into wine and other grape products and marketed the products on behalf of the members. The members of these associations delivered agreed quantities of grapes to the wineries of the associations where they were commingled with those of other members and each year they became a part of what was termed a wine pool for that year. Each member was assigned a percentage of interest in the pool. Ultimately the net proceeds from the sales of the products were returned to the members of the pools in proportion to their percentage of interest therein, all in accordance with the provisions of written agreements made between the association and the individual members.

Respondent was the sole legatee under the will of Lange. The estate was closed in 1944. In that year decedent’s share of certain liquidation proceeds of the…