Plummer

In this action, 'plaintiffs seek refund of estate taxes paid in the sum of $21,874.78 upon the ground that the Commissioner erroneously included in decedent Sanford Plummer’s statutory gross estate, the entire value of all property standing in his name 'at death'. (May 23, 1941.) The Commissioner’s alleged error, urged in a claim for refund, which was administratively denied, and reasserted here, is that such property was community property since September 17, 1939, (date of decedent’s last will) in which decedent’s wife had a present, vested and equal interest. The basis of the claim, that, the wife had such half interest, is that in 'his last will, the decedent declared his property to be of the community.

There is no doubt and both sides so concede, that under California statutes and federal decisions, since July 29, 1927, 1 in California, the wife has a “present, existing and equal interest” in community property, and that by agreement the husband and wife can fix or transmute their property from separate to community or vice versa. 2

The sole question here posed is whether the declaration in the decedent’s will 3 is equivalent to such an agreement.

Neither good reason or…