Coddington v. Stone

9 S.E.2d 420 (N.C. 1940)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Coddington, Sr., died in December 1928, seized and possessed of a fee-simple title described in the contract of purchase and sale between the parties. All the property was given in trust to the Union National Bank of Charlotte, North Carolina. The bank was made executor and the power given it to 'sell, invest, reinvest, and change the investment' of the property from time to time, to collect rents, income, and profits, and use as much of the same as was necessary 'for the support, maintenance and education of my sons, Charles C. Coddington, Jr., Dabney M. Coddington, and William I. Coddington, until the youngest one of my said sons shall attain the age of twenty-one years'; any surplus of the income from the property during the trust period not necessary for the support and education of these three sons was required to be added to the corpus of the estate and held in trust in the same manner as the original corpus. Item III of the will reads: When my youngest son, William I. Coddington, reaches the age of twenty-one years, I hereby direct the said Bank to divide said property and estate into three equal parts and to turn over and deliver one of such parts to each of my sons, Charles C. Coddington, Jr., Dabney M. Coddington and William I. Coddington, and each of my sons shall thereupon become the absolute owner thereof and the said Bank shall be discharged from any further duties as Trustee.' There was no provision in the will for other disposition of the property upon the death of any of the beneficiaries, and no residuary clause. The estate was worth more than a million dollars. C. C. Coddington, Jr., died at the age of 18 years, in the year 1932, and William I. Coddington, the youngest of the children, became 21 years of age on the 13th day of November 1938. C.C. Coddington, Jr., was never married and left as his sole heirs at law his two brothers, Dabney M. Coddington and William I. Coddington. Purporting to act under the terms of the will, the executor divided the estate between William I. Coddington and Dabney M. Coddington at the time that William I. Coddington became 21 years of age, and the trust then terminated. There was no administration on the estate of C. C. Coddington, Jr., and no inheritance taxes paid upon his estate either to the State of North Carolina or to the Federal Government. C. C. Coddington, Jr., left no estate except the vested interest in his father's estate under the will. The judge was of the opinion that no state or federal inheritance taxes were chargeable upon the property distributed to the surviving children by reason of the death of C. C. Coddington, Jr., before William I. Coddington became twenty-one years of age, and that the property was, therefore, clear of any lien thus attaching. Ps got the judgment and Ds appealed.