Wachovia Bank & Trust Co. v. Doughton, 272 U.S. 567 (1926)

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Wachovia Bank & Trust Company v. Doughton

No. 49

Argued May 6, 1926
Decided November 29, 1926
272 U.S. 567

ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT

OF THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA

Syllabus

1. A state may not subject to taxation things wholly beyond her control. P. 575.

2. The exercise of a power of appointment through a will made in North Carolina by a resident of that state held not taxable there when the property was a trust fund in Massachusetts created by the will of a citizen of that state bestowing the power of appointment -- this in view of the Massachusetts law which treats the property in such cases as passing under that law from the original donor to the appointee, and governs the interpretation of the power and its execution and the distribution of assets thereunder. P. 575.

189 N.C. 50 reversed.

Error to a judgment of the Supreme Court of North Carolina which sustained a tax upon the value of property which passed to citizens of that state under a power of appointment executed by a resident of that state, but created by the will of a resident of Massachusetts, where the property was situate.