Morsman v. Commissioner

90 F.2d 18 (1937)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P executed an instrument captioned 'Trust Agreement' on January 28, 1929, in which he named himself as trustee and provided that the United States Trust Company should be the successor trustee. P was the trustee of stock that he owned and listed in the agreement. P was not married and had no children. He had a brother. Per the trust, it was to be terminated upon his death if he died without children. If he died with issue, they would receive income for 20 years from the stock in the trust. After 20 years, the trust would terminate and the remainder would go to his children, widow, or heirs. The certificates of stock were not assigned to P as trustee, but were merely indorsed in blank, and were placed by P with the instrument itself in his safe deposit box. P sold some of the stock at a profit. On February 8, 1929, P added to the trust fund the sum of $3,371.78 by his personal check payable to himself as trustee and simultaneously, as trustee. D sold more stock on May 1, 1929. On May 3, 1929, P assigned and delivered to the United States Trust Company all the funds then included in the trust, amounting at that time, on account of the various transactions of P while he handled the fund, to $59,337. P did not report the profit from the sales of the securities. These profits were reported in a separate return filed by the United States Trust Company, as trustee. D ruled that the profit was P’s individual income because the trustee and the cestui que trust under the so-called trust agreement were one and the same person prior to May 3, 1929. The decision was affirmed. P appealed contending that the income belonged to the trust and not him.