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127 F.2d 523

Docket No. 8876.

Wenger v. Commissioner

Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals

Decided April 7, 1942.

Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals · decided 1942-04-07

2 counsel of record

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“The so-called contingencies, “any accident, sickness, calamity, misfortune, adversity, bereavement or loss, financially or otherwise”, the occurrence of one of which gives rise to the right to call for distributions from the trust, are so broad and all-embracing that the use and enjoyment of the income and, if necessary, the corpus by petitioner, is, for practical purposes, almost as complete as if she had retained title to the property. Petitioner has merely set aside in the hands of a trustee an amount of her excess capital to be held and accumulated as a protection to herself and her children against a “rainy day.” These named contingen-eies permit her, if she cares to do so, and secures the acquiescense of the trustee, to cause the expenditure of the income, and if necessary the corpus, for the needs for which she would normally have used and expended the property had no trust been created. * * *”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Barker v. Commissioner

Relies on Helvering v. City Bank Farmers Trust Co. · Reinecke v. Smith · Altmaier v. Commissioner

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Opinion by (per_curiam) · Decided 1942-04-07

How this case has been cited

Cited by 12 later decisions — most recently January 1960

8 federal appellate ·

50194219501960decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1*524A. W. Wenger, of Ladue City, Mo., and Henry B. Graves and Charles H. Hatch, both of Detroit, Mich., for petitioner.

¶2Samuel O. Clark, Jr., J. P. Wenchel, Sewall Key, John W. Smith, J. Louis Monarch, and Morton K. Rothschild, all of Washington, D. C., for respondent.

¶3Before SIMONS, ALLEN, and McALLISTER, Circuit Judges.

¶4PER CURIAM.

¶5This case came on to be heard upon the records and briefs and oral argument of counsel.

¶6And it appearing that the petitioner created a trust under which she and her children were beneficiaries, the income of which, together with the corpus, might be distributed in amounts within the discretion of the trustee, when requested in writing by petitioner or any of her children, in case “any accident, sickness, calamity, misfortune, adversity, bereavement or loss, financially or otherwise,” should befall them;

¶7And it appearing that the trustee, who is petitioner’s nephew and has been her trusted adviser since 1916, has no substantial adverse interest in the disposition of the income or corpus of the trust property (Sections 166 and 167, Revenue Act of 1934, 26 U.S.C.A. Int.Rev.Code, §§ 166, 167); Reinecke v. Smith, 289 U.S. 172, 53 S.Ct. 570, 77 L.Ed. 1109; Altmaier v. Commissioner, 6 Cir., 116 F.2d 162, 164, certiorari denied 312 U.S. 706, 61 S.Ct. 827, 85 L.Ed. 1138; and that the necessity for a written request for payment is not a substantial condition precedent to the exercise of the trustee’s power to distribute the income or corpus to the petitioner ; and that the power to effect the distribution is wholly within the control of the petitioner and the trustee; Cf. Helvering v. City Bank Farmers Trust Co., 296 U.S. 85, 91, 56 S.Ct. 70, 80 L.Ed. 62;

¶8And it appearing that the Board correctly concluded that under the trust instrument' the petitioner is permitted, if she cares to. do so and secures the acquiescence of the trustee, to cause the expenditure of the income and if necessary of the corpus, for needs for which petitioner normally would' have used the property had no trust been created; and that the entire income of the trust is taxable to the petitioner under Sections 166 and 167 of the Revenue Act of' 1934;

¶9And no reversible error appearing in the record:

¶10It is ordered that the decision be, and it hereby is, affirmed.

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