Clarence Blagen Fish, Administrator With the Will Annexed of the Estate of Minnie C. Blagen, Deceased v. United States

Clarence Blagen Fish (taxpayer), as administrator of the estate of Minnie C. Blagen, has appealed from an adverse judgment of the District Court on his suit for refund of federal estate taxes in the sum of $33,355.13 plus interest, alleged to have been erroneously assessed and collected from the estate by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue. The taxpayer paid the deficiency assessed by the Commissioner and filed a timely claim for refund, which was disallowed in full by the Commissioner. This action followed, seeking recovery of the disputed amount.

The stipulated facts reveal that Clarence G. Blagen, the husband of Minnie C. Blagen, died on May 28, 1951. The residuary clause of his will established a trust, the terms of which provided that Minnie C. Blagen should have, during her lifetime, the right in any calendar year to demand payment to her of all or part of the net income of the trust for that year, but that any income not so claimed by her would be added to the corpus of the trust. Upon the death of Minnie C. Blagen, the trust corpus, including such accumulated income added to the corpus, was to be distributed to the grandchildren of Clarence G. Blagen.

Minnie C. Blagen…