Algerine Allen Smith James Allen Smith Executor v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue’s Empirical Analysis
Citation profile
1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 22 later decisions — most recently June 2020
1 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 United States v. Cartwright · Ithaca Trust Co. v. United States · United States v. Kirby Lumber Co. · Young Men's Christian Ass'n of Columbus Ohio v. Davis · Edward Prigg v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The actual value of Exxon’s claim prior to either settlement or entry of a judgment is inherently imprecise, yet “even a disputed claim may have a value to which lawyers who settle cases every day may well testify, fully as measurable as the possible future amounts that may eventually accrue on an uncontested claim.” [Footnote citing Gowetz v. Commissioner, 320 F.2d 874, 876 (1st Cir.1963) ] In fact, when addressing situations that are the obverse of the one in the instant case, i.e., when the decedent-estate taxpayer is a plaintiff rather than a defendant in a pending lawsuit, the Commissioner has considered himself capable of determining the value of a pending lawsuit in exact dollars and cents, even when the claim has not been reduced to judgment. [Footnote citing Estate of Davis v. Commissioner, 65 T.C.M. (CCH) 2365 , 1993 WL 102487 (1993) ] Furthermore, courts have consistently held that “inexactitude is often a byproduct in estimating claims or assets without an established market and provides no excuse for failing to value the claims ... in the light of the vicissitudes attending their recovery.” [Footnote citing Estate of Curry v. Commissioner, 74 T.C. 540, 551 , 1980 WL 4454 (1980) ]”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The first impression is that it is absurd to resort to statistical probabilities when you know the fact. But this is due to inaccurate thinking. The estate so far as may be is settled as of the date of the testator’s death ... The tax is on the act of the testator not on the receipt of property by the legatees ... Therefore, the value of the thing to be taxed must be estimated as of the time when the act is done. But the value of property at a given time depends upon the relative intensity of the social desire for it at that time, expressed in the money that it would bring in the market ... Like all values, as the word is used by the law, it depends largely on more or less certain prophecies of the future, and the value is no less real at that time if later the prophecy turns out false than when it comes out true ... Tempting as it is to correct uncertain probabilities by the now certain fact, we are of opinion that it cannot be done, but that the value of the wife’s life interest must be estimated by the mortality tables.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“neither . . . admit nor consider evidence of post-death occurrences when determining the date-of-death value of [the] claim.”
2 later decisions 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.