Estate of Andrews v. United States
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
850 F. Supp. 1279 (1994)
- Written by Daniel Clark, JD
Facts
V. C. Andrews was a commercially successful author. Upon Andrews’s death, her publisher arranged with the executor of her estate (plaintiff) to continue to publish ghostwritten books under Andrews’s name. The ghostwritten books were marketed and produced in such a way as to obscure the fact that they were not written by Andrews herself. The ghostwritten books proved to be commercially successful. A substantial portion of the commercial success was attributable to the fact that the books named Andrews as their author. The executor of Andrews’s estate did not include Andrews’s name as an asset in her estate. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) (defendant) determined that Andrews’s name was an asset to be included in her estate and valued her name at over $1 million. The parties brought their dispute to the district court.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Payne, J.)
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