Welch v. Davidson’s Empirical Analysis
102 F.2d 100 · 1939
Citation profile
10 federal appellate · 2 district · 3 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 23 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2011
10 federal appellate · 2 district · 3 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Burnet v. Guggenheim · Cox v. Commissioner
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 23 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“'Taxation is not so much concerned with the refinements of title as it is with actual command over the property taxed--the actual benefit for which the tax is paid.' ... The statute is not aimed at every transfer of the legal title without consideration. Such a transfer there would be if the trustees were to hold for the use of the grantor. It is aimed at transfers of the title that have the quality of a gift, and a gift is not consummate until put beyond recall. ... The tax on gifts was something new. Even so, the concept of a transfer, so painfully developed in respect of taxes on estates, was not flung aside and scouted in laying this new burden upon transfers during life. Congress was aware that what was of the essence of a transfer had come to be identified more nearly with a change of economic benefits than with technicalities of title.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“The statute of 1932, like that of 1924, was 'not aimed at every transfer of the legal title without consideration.' It was aimed at transfers that 'had come to be identified more nearly with a change of economic benefits than with technicalities of title', at 'transfers of the title that have the quality of a gift.' Surely transfer of title to the trustee did not partake of the quality of a gift. The trustee was not the object of the plaintiff's bounty. The transfer to it of the bare legal title effected 'no change of economic benefits' in its behalf. The beneficiaries are the donees.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“In the case of gifts (other than of future interests in property) made to any person by the donor during the calendar year, the first $5,000 of such gifts . . . shall not ... be included in the total amount of gifts made during such year.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.