TAXATION - FEDERAL GIFT TAX - CANCELLATION OF A POWER TODESIGNATE NEW BENEFICIARIES OTHER THAN THE SETTLOR - INTERRELATIONSHIP OF GIFT AND ESTATE TAX

Before the enactment of the 1924 gift tax statute, decedent created a trust for the benefit of named beneficiaries, reserving to himself power both to revoke and to modify the trust. In 1919 the decedent made a surrender of the power to revoke the trust by a writing which reserved the power to designate new beneficiaries other than himself. This latter power was renounced in 1924 after the effective date of the gift tax statute. The Board of Tax Appeals and the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed the commissioner\u27s ruling that the gift became complete and taxable only upon decedent\u27s final renunciation of his power to designate new beneficiaries. Held, the decisions below are affirmed. Sanford\u27s Estate v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 308 U.S. 39, 60 S. Ct. 51 (1939)

DAMAGES - MEASURE OF DAMAGES FOR PERSONAL INJURY - INABILITY TO ENJOY LIFE AS AN ELEMENT OF DAMAGE

Plaintiff sustained injuries to his spine and nervous system when defendant\u27s dam burst and caught the automobile, in which plaintiff was riding, in a surge of water. Held, an instruction was erroneous which included, as an element of damage, plaintiff\u27s inability on account of his injuries, to enjoy life in the manner to which he was accustomed. Northern Indiana Public Service Co. v. Robinson, (Ind. App. 1939) 18 N. E. (2d) 933

TAXATION - FEDERAL ESTATE TAX - TRANSFERS IN WHICH DECEDENT HAD RESERVED A CONTINGENT REVERSIONARY INTEREST - ST. LOUIS UNION TRUST CASES OVERRULED

In 1919 decedent transferred property in irrevocable trust, income to be paid to X for life and on X\u27s death, the corpus and accumulated income to be returned to the settlor, if he should then be living; but if he should then be dead, remainder to Y. The settlor predeceased the life beneficiary and the commissioner included the trust property in decedent\u27s gross estate under section 302 (c) of the federal estate tax. The board of tax appeals reversed this determination, and the board was upheld by the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, on the authority of the St. Louis Union Trust cases. Held, the untenable diversities of the St. Louis Union Trust cases must be rejected and those cases are overruled. In accordance with Klein v. United States, dispositions by way of trust which provide for return or reversion of the corpus to the donor upon a contingency terminable at his death are properly included in decedent\u27s gross estate as transfers intended to take effect in possession and enjoyment at or after his death under section 302 (c) of the Revenue Act of 1926. Helvering v. Hallock, 309 U.S. 106, 60 S. Ct. 444 (1940)

DAMAGES - MENTAL ANGUISH - RECOVERY DENIED FOR MENTAL ANGUISH ARISING OUT OF NEGLIGENT INJURY TO PERSONAL PROPERTY

Plaintiff placed an order with defendant pharmacist to have a rare photograph of plaintiff\u27s deceased mother reproduced, the work to be done by defendant corporation. When the original picture was returned to plaintiff, it was stained, cracked, and otherwise disfigured, by reason of which plaintiff claimed he was caused physical and mental anguish. Held, plaintiff\u27s recovery is limited to nominal damages. Furlan v. Rayon Photo Works, Inc.., 171 Misc. 839, 12 N. Y. S. (2d) 921 (1939)

TAXATION - INCOME TAX - LIABILITY OF SETTLORS OF IRREVOCABLE SHORT TERM TRUSTS

In a recent significant decision the Supreme Court of the United States has declared that, under certain circumstances, income from irrevocable short-term trusts may be taxed to the settlor. This conclusion is contrary to the previously accepted notion that there was no authority for such a tax under existing provisions of the Revenue Act. In the light of this and other recent decisions the matter of taxation of income from short-term trusts assumes renewed significance

VENDOR AND PURCHASER-VENDOR\u27S RELEASE OF SUB-ASSIGNEE HELD A DISCHARGE OF ALL PRIOR ASSIGNEES

The bank for which plaintiff is receiver sold land on contract. There followed four successive assignments of the vendee\u27s interest, in each of which the assignee expressly assumed the contract obligation. After the fourth assignment, default occurred as to payments and taxes, and plaintiff began negotiations to sell the property to an intermediate assignee, R. To effectuate this sale, plaintiff procured an assignment in blank from the fourth assignee, W, in consideration of a release of W from further liability on the contract. The negotiations with R having failed, plaintiff brought suit against the vendee and all the assignees to foreclose the land contract and to obtain a decree for deficiency. Held, two justices dissenting, the vendor\u27s conduct in releasing a sub-assignee terminated the liability of the vendee and all intermediate assignees who had assumed the-contract. McCurdy v. Van Os, 290 Mich. 492, 287 N. W. 890 (r939)

APPEAL AND ERROR - REVIEWABILITY OF AN ORDER GRANTING A NEW TRIAL

When a trial court sets aside a verdict and grants a new trial, the order may or may not be reviewable depending on the jurisdiction. In some jurisdictions which permit a review, the aggrieved party must save an exception to the order and assign this ruling as error when an appeal is ultimately taken from a subsequent appealable decision. In other jurisdictions, he may take an appeal directly from the order. This comment will discuss (1) the common-law practice which permitted no review of an order granting a new trial; (2) the practice allowing the aggrieved party to save an exception to the order and assign it as error on a subsequent appeal; (3) the procedure of direct appeal; and (4) the desirability of allowing a direct appeal

Daubert/Kumho Tire and the Legal Malpractice Expert Witness

In legal malpractice cases, parties almost always end up using expert witnesses. Whether a particular legal malpractice expert is qualified to testify often is a hotly contested issue. In this Article, the authors provide recommendations for how to qualify a legal malpractice expert and how to challenge a legal malpractice expert’s qualifications

Thermal non-equilibrium in dispersed flow film boiling in a vertical tube

The departure from thermal equilibrium between a dispersed liquid phase and its vapor at high quality during film boiling is investigated, The departure from equilibruim is manifested by the high resistance to heat transfer between the dispersed and continuous phases, which result in much higher vapor temperatures and a defect in the amount of vapor generated. The effect on the overall heat transfer is to raise the tube wall temperature, and incomplete evaporation occurs within the tubes. Film boiling tests with liquid nitrogen (70,0 90 SG 190,000 lbm/hr/ft2 and 5000sq/A!25,000 Btu/hr/ft ) were made with 0.228, 0,323, and 0.462 inch ID tubes, 4 and 8 foot long. Visual observations showed that complete evaporation occurs at heat inputs much greater than the required heat of evaporation based on thermal equilibruim (A Hinput >Hfg); in terms of quality, the heat inp t was as large as 300% quality for G = 70,000 lbm/hr/ft . The departure from equilibruim is principally a function of the total mass velocity, being less at higher mass velocities. The non-equilibruim quality was measured experimentally by a helium tracer ggs technique; reliable quality data at G = 70,000 lbm/hr/ft was found to be in agreement with the departure from equilibruim calculated by applying a modified single phase heat transfer coefficient to the film boiling data. A kinematic-heat transfer analysis of the core flow, which takes into account the acceleration, evaporation and breakup of a droplet, confirmed the trends in the departure from equilibrium. A Weber number criterion (Wec = 7.5) was found to adequately describe the breakup of droplets over a partial range of test conditions. Film boiling pressure drop is also reported.Sponsored by the National Science Foundation Contract D.S.R

On the Rates of Type Ia Supernovae in Dwarf and Giant Hosts with ROTSE-IIIb

We present a sample of 23 spectroscopically confirmed Type Ia supernovae that were discovered in the background of galaxy clusters targeted by ROTSE-IIIb and use up to 18 of these to determine the local (z = 0.05) volumetric rate. Since our survey is flux limited and thus biased against fainter objects, the pseudo-absolute magnitude distribution (pAMD) of SNeIa in a given volume is an important concern, especially the relative frequency of high to low-luminosity SNeIa. We find that the pAMD derived from the volume limited Lick Observatory Supernova Search (LOSS) sample is incompatible with the distribution of SNeIa in a volume limited (z<0.12) sub sample of the SDSS-II. The LOSS sample requires far more low-luminosity SNeIa than the SDSS-II can accommodate. Even though LOSS and SDSS-II have sampled different SNeIa populations, their volumetric rates are surprisingly similar. Using the same model pAMD adopted in the SDSS-II SNeIa rate calculation and excluding two high-luminosity SNeIa from our sample, we derive a rate that is marginally higher than previous low-redshift determinations. With our full sample and the LOSS pAMD our rate is more than double the canonical value. We also find that 5 of our 18 SNeIa are hosted by very low-luminosity (M_B > -16) galaxies, whereas only 1 out 79 nearby SDSS-II SNeIa have such faint hosts. It is possible that previous works have under-counted either low luminosity SNeIa, SNeIa in low luminosity hosts, or peculiar SNeIa (sometimes explicitly), and the total SNeIa rate may be higher than the canonical value.Comment: 18 pages; accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journa