Wells Fargo Bank & Union Trust Co. v. United States

The action is one brought under Section 1346(a) (1) Title 28 U.S.C.A. for the refund of federal income taxes alleged to be erroneously assessed and collected.

The essential facts are not in dispute and have been the subject of stipulation: The taxpayer is the executor of the Last Will and Testament of Walter Gibson who died on December 21, 1938. His estate was in the course of administration *341 until August 26, 1941. Under the terms of his Last Will his property was placed in trust. His wife was named as the income beneficiary. The terms of the trust are not immediately important.

His Last Will, among other things, stated that its provisions were conditioned on his wife’s waiving her right to take one-half of their community property. Such a waiver was executed .by his wife contemporaneously with the execution of the Will.

The Will also gave her the power to withdraw one-half of the amount of the corpus of the trust for any purpose she might desire. This power was exercised by the wife when she assigned to the Crocker First National Bank as trustee one-half of the corpus of the trust established by the decedent. This property was distributed to the Crocker Bank under the…