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Estate of Sowell v. Commissioner

708 F.2d 1564 (1983)

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Estate of Sowell v. Commissioner

United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
708 F.2d 1564 (1983)

JC

Facts

Ida Sowell was the surviving spouse of Thomas Sowell, who established a testamentary trust naming Ida as trustee. The trustee provided net income to Ida during her life, and on her death, the corpus and any additional sums were to pass to Thomas’s sons and daughter-in-law. Pivotally, the trustee was given the power to invade the trust’s corpus in cases of emergency or illness. When Ida died, the issue became whether her power to invade the corpus in cases of emergency or illness was a general power of appointment, such that the entire trust corpus would be included in Ida’s gross estate. The two questions to be addressed were (1) whether the standard for invasion could be ascertained and interpreted by a court and (2) whether that standard was related to the decedent’s need for health, support, or maintenance. Ida’s estate (plaintiff) claimed that the power to invade the corpus in emergency or illness was not a general power and that the value of the trust corpus should not be included in Ida’s gross estate. The government (defendant) disagreed, asserting that the use of the term “emergency” was not clearly limited to matters involving Ida’s health, education, support, or maintenance. The tax court ruled in favor of the government, and the estate appealed.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Doyle, J.)

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