Child v. United States
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
540 F.2d 579 (1976)
- Written by Joe Cox, JD
Facts
Ruth Child left a significant part of her estate to a pair of nonprofit cemetery associations. In an estate-tax filing, her executor (plaintiff) claimed a deduction for transfer to a charitable or religious entity. While income-tax deductions were allowed for cemetery companies, there was no accompanying deduction for estate-tax purposes, which meant that the cemetery associations were considered under the framework of whether they qualified as charitable or religious organizations. The government (defendant) rejected the estate’s claimed deduction. The executor filed suit in district court, which found for the government, and the executor appealed. The estate argued that the function of the cemetery associations was charitable or religious. The government disagreed, noting that no free burial was provided to indigents, nor were any discount prices provided. While previous cases had broadly read the criteria for charitable or religious categorization, the issue before the court remained the total operations of the entities and how they should be characterized.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Oakes, J.)
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