Mellon v. Driscoll’s Empirical Analysis
117 F.2d 477 · 1941
Citation profile
18 federal appellate · 1 district ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 25 later decisions — most recently June 1998 · most notably Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Holmes' Estate (1946), Hurd v. Commissioner (1947)
18 federal appellate · 1 district ·
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 Reinecke v. Northern Trust Co. · Chase Nat Bank of City of New York v. United States · Tyler v. United States · Burnet v. Guggenheim · Krueger v. United States
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 25 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In General. — The value of the gross estate shall include the value of all property— Transfers after June 22, 1936. — To the extent of any interest therein of which the decedent has at any time made a transfer (except in case of a bona fide sale for an adequate and full consideration in money or money’s worth), by trust or otherwise, where the enjoyment thereof was subject at the date of his death to any change through the exercise of a power (in whatever capacity exercisable) by the decedent alone or by the decedent in conjunction with any other person (without regard to when or from what source the decedent acquired such power), to alter, amend, revoke, or terminate, or where any such power is relinquished during the 3-year period ending on the date of the decedent's death.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(e) Powers relinquished in contemplation of death — (1) In general. If a power to alter, amend, revoke, or terminate would have resulted in the inclusion of an interest in property in a decedent's gross estate under section 2038 if it had been held until the decedent's death, the relinquishment of the power in contemplation of the decedent's death within 3 years before his death results in the inclusion of the same interest in property in the decedent's gross estate, except to the extent that the power was relinquished for an adequate and full consideration in money or money's worth (see § 20.2043-1). For the meaning of the phrase "in contemplation of death," see paragraph (c) of § 20.2035-1.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““The third change made in the subdivision by the Revenue Act of 1936 consisted of the addition of the words ‘or terminate’ following the words ‘to alter, amend, revoke’. Such addition is considered but declaratory of the meaning of the subdivision prior to the amendment. A power to terminate capable of being so exercis.ed as to revest in the decedent the ownership of the transferred property or an interest therein, or as otherwise to inure to his benefit or the benefit of his estate, is, to that extent, the equivalent of a power to ‘revoke’, and when otherwise so exercisable as to effect a change in the enjoyment, is the equivalent of a power to ‘alter’.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Welch v. Terhune
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.