David C. Mapes, Jr. Nancy Dodds Mary Gail Hentzen v. United States

In this case we are called upon to determine whether a legatee’s purported renunciation of his half-interest in an estate precluded the federal government from asserting a lien against that half-interest as the result of the legatee’s nonpayment of taxes. The district court held that the tax lien was valid under federal law because the renunciation failed as a matter of state law. We reverse.

FACTS AND PRIOR PROCEEDINGS

Nell Joyner Mapes died on March 27, 1991, leaving half of her estate to her son, David Mapes, Sr. (“Mapes”). At the time of his mother’s death, Mapes and his wife owed the federal government nearly $500,000 in back taxes and accrued statutory additions to tax. In order to prevent the government from attaching his half-interest in the decedent’s estate, Mapes purported to renounce his rights in favor of his three children by executing a document entitled Renunciation of Devise (“Renunciation”), dated April 2, 1991, and filed with the appropriate court on May 16, 1991. The government served a Notice of Levy and, later, a Final Demand, asserting a tax lien against any inheritance payable to Mapes and/or his wife from the estate. The estate representative refused to…