Dodge v. Commissioner’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

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

1. “It follows, of course, that if the marital portion here was taken from the succession or the heirs it must first have passed from the decedent and must have been a part of her estate at the time of her death. It is not material to our question whether it passed by inheritance or by operation of the state statutes. The Federal estate tax is levied upon the property passing at or by reason of death. It is a tax not on the interest in property to which another succeeds, but on the interest of the decedent which ceases by reason of death. Knowlton v. Moore, 178 U. S. 41 ; Edwards v. Slocum, 264 U. S. 61 ; Tyler v. United States, 281 U. S. 497 . In Grooks v. Loose, 36 Fed. (2d) 531, it was said: * * * the Federal Estate Tax Law is not concerned primarily with the character of the interest or estate acquired by the beneficiary, or its subsequent status; but the law is primarily concerned with the ceasing of the interest of the decedent in the property, with the “shifting of economic benefits” of property from the decedent. If there is such a ceasing of the interest of the decedent, such a “shifting of economic benefits”, the federal estate tax comes into play. In Empire Trust Co. et al., Executors, 35 B. T. A. 866; affd., 94 Fed. (2d) 307, we said: * * * We think it is clear that the purpose of the Revenue Act of 1926 was to include in the gross estate of the decedent the value of all property at the time of death which passed from the dead to the living to the extent of any intere”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Faber v. Commissioner