Kirkwood

This is an appeal by the Controller of the State of California from a judgment of the superior court, sitting in probate, which sustained respondent George Badovich ’s objections to the report of the inheritance tax appraiser and which fixed the inheritance tax on the estate of Jack B. Badovich, deceased.

The facts are not in dispute.

In 1934, when George Vukoye (now legally known as George Badovich) was 17 years of age, his natural parents entered into an oral agreement with the decedent, Jack B. Badovich, whereby George was to live with Jack who promised that he would consider George his son and would adopt him. George lived with Jack until Jack’s death in October, 1953, changed his name to George Badovich and was publicly acknowledged by Jack as his son and the heir to his estate. During the time George lived with Jack, he worked in Jack’s liquor store, conducted himself as a natural child and considered himself the son of Jack. Jack died intestate without having married or leaving issue of his body. He left no father or mother surviving him but did leave some blood relatives in Yugoslavia. * Jack had not, during his lifetime, instituted formal proceedings for the adoption of…

In my view the majority opinion errs in holding that the decree in the so-called heir-ship proceeding is conclusive as to the tax proceeding and that the argument of the State Controller constitutes an attack on the heirship decree. Because such opinion may well be cited for far-reaching effects in the future I deem it proper to record here the principal arguments against it.

If established principles were adhered to, this appeal should be resolved primarily by application of pertinent sections of the California Inheritance Tax Law (Rev. & Tax. Code, § 13301 et seq.) and secondarily on the statutory and decisional law of adoption. Applying the tax law consistently with the adoption law leads to the conclusion that George Badovich should be regarded, for purposes of assessing the inheritance tax, as a Class D rather than a Class A transferee. More specifically, it will appear from the facts and law hereinafter elucidated, that the very decree which George relies on as adjudicating his Class A status, conclusively establishes facts leading to the conclusion that he is in Class D. Hence, the judgment appealed from should be reversed.

Following the death of Jack Badovich, George…