First Nat Bank of Boston v. State of Maine’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

54 federal appellate · 11 district · 190 state decisions

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 391 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““It long has been settled law that real property can not be taxed, or made the basis of an inheritance tax, except by the state in which it is located. More recently it became settled that the same rule applies with respect to tangible personal property. And it now is established by the three cases last cited that certain specific kinds of intangibles, namely bonds, notes and credits, are subject to the imposition of an inheritance tax only by the domiciliary state; and this notwithstanding the bonds are registered in another state, and the notes secured upon lands located in another state, resort to whose laws may be necessary to secure payment. “The rule of immunity from taxation by more than one state, deducible from the decisions in respect of these various and distinct kinds of property, is broader than the applications thus far made of it. In its application to death taxes, the rule rests for its justification upon the fundamental conception that the transmission from the dead to the living of a particular thing, whether corporeal or incorporeal, is an event which cannot take place in two or more states at one and the same time. In respect of tangible property, the opposite view must be rejected as connoting a physical impossibility; in the case of intangible property, it must' be rejected as involving an inherent and logical self-contradiction. Due regard for the processes of correct thinking compels the conclusion that a determination fixing the local situs of a thing”

   5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Burnet v. Brooks · In Re Estate of Kennedy

2. ““The question remains: In which state, among two or more claiming the power to impose the tax, does the taxable event occur? In the case of tangible personalty, the solution is simple: the transfer, that is, the taxable event, occurs in that state where the property has an actual situs, and it is taxable there and not elsewhere.” First Nat. Bank v. Maine, 284 U. S. 312 , 76 L. Ed. 313 , 52 S. Ct. 174 , 77 A. L. R. 1401.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Havemeyer v. Coleman, Auditor of Public Accounts · 1 Wash. 2d 82 - State v. Brooks

3. ““The value of the gross estate of a decedent shall be determined by including the value at the time of his death of all property, real or personal, within the jurisdiction of this state, and any interest therein, whether tangible or intangible, which shall pass to any person, in trust or otherwise, by testamentary disposition or by law of inheritance or succession of this or any other state or country, or by deed, grant, bargain, sale or gift made in contemplation of the death of the grantor, vendor or donor, or intended to take effect in possession or enjoyment at or after his death.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Untermeyer v. State Tax Commission · In Re Lloyd's Estate