GROWING APPLE CROP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 115, 17 May 1932, Page 5

GROWING APPLE CROP.

DEATH DUTY ASSESSMENT,

MUST BE ADDED TO VALUE.

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, this day.

Judgment was delivered in the Supreme Court by Mr. Justice Ostler to-day in a case under the Death Duties Act, 1924, in which his Honor found that the value of an apple crop on a deceased person's estate must be added to the valuation of land for the assessment of death duties.

The case was brought by Edward Austin Bisley and others against the Commissioner of Stamp Duties, and was stated for the opinion of the Court under section 62 of the Death Duties Act.

The appellants were executors of the estate of Edward Henry Bisley, deceased, apple grower, of Nelson. The capital value of the estate was £3360, and there was an immature crop of apples on the estate, the value of which was £1075, which was not included. Subsequently the appellants contended that in law the apple crop was included in the value of the land.

His Honor found, under the 1924 Death Duties Act, all real and personal property was subject to payment of death duties. It could not be denied that the growing crop was the property of the deceased, and as all property of the deceased was liable to assessment he could not see how any valid objection coukl be taken to the Commissioner adding its value to the assessment, seeing it was not included in the value of the land.