In re the Transfer Tax upon the Estate of Hernandez

Headnote

Matter of Hernandez, 172 App. Div. 467 , affirmed.

Appeal from an order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the first judicial department, entered May 5, 1916, which affirmed a decree of the New York County Surrogate’s Court dismissing an appeal from a prior decree assessing a transfer tax upon the estate of Tirso M. y Hernandez, deceased. The surrogate fixed the -tax upon the theory that the deceased was a non-resident.

The comptroller claims that the deceased was a resident and that the tax should have been assessed accordingly, and that there was improperly deducted from the personal property of the deceased within this state one-half of the total sum upon the theory that this one-half belonged to the widow of the deceased under the Spanish law as her gananciales or joint gains of the marriage; that as the deceased was a naturalized American citizen and a resident of New York, the rights of his widow are fixed by the law of the forum and not by the Spanish law.