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beneficiary

Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court

Definitions from Case Law

From 300 U.S. 5 - Blair v. Commissioner · 1937Most cited · 1,566 citing opinions

revenue act

the term is merely descriptive of the one entitled to the beneficial interest

How the Supreme Court has restated “beneficiary”

19331937 most cited: 300 U.S. 5 - Blair v. Commissioner (1937)
first stateddeparted

Each Supreme Court definition of “beneficiary,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.

How often courts cite the cases defining “beneficiary”

1930194019601980200020202030771

Court decisions citing the 3 opinions that defined “beneficiary” — 2,279 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.

All 3 definitions, chronological · 1933–1937

  1. 1933·289 U.S. 172 - Reinecke v. Smith[p7]· cited 300×
    ORIGINAL

    the cestui que trust who enjoys the advantages of such administration

  2. a widow who accepts the provisions of her husband's will and receives part or all of the income from an established trust in lieu of her statutory rights is a beneficiary within the ambit of the statute; when she makes her election the widow decides to accept the benefits of the will with the accompanying rights and liabilities; in no proper sense does she purchase an annuity