Mead

According to the briefs in this case, but two issues remain unsettled and undecided: First, whether or not the Commissioner of Internal Revenue erred by including in the gross estate of William Mead, deceased, the sum of $115,400 transferred by decedent to others under the “Mead 1926 Trust,” and, second, whether or not the •Commissioner of Internal Revenue erred by including in the gross estate and subject to tax the sum of $959,638.97, representing the alleged market value of a bequest in the will of William Mead to the “Mead Housing Trust.”

By a written instrument executed December 22, 1926, denominated “Deed of Trust,” William Mead, the deceased, and Nella Wilde Mead, husband and wife, created the trust that is the subject-matter of the first of the two questions for decision. The pertinent provisions of this trust instrument are:

This 1926 trust was operative during the lifetime of William Mead. He died November 23, 1927. On March 12, 1927, he made and executed an olographic will. It conitins the following statements:

Section 302 (d) of the Revenue Act of 1926, 44 Stat. 71 , 26 U.S.C.A. § 411 (d), which establishes and determines the method of ascertaining the value of the…