GIFTS OF LAND

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 70, 24 March 1931, Page 10

GIFTS OF LAND

PART OF DUTIABLE

ESTATE?

• The Court of Appeal was engaged today hearing an appeal by James Armbur Johnstone, stock , ;and ' station agent, of Dunedin, and William Irvine Nichol, farmer, of. Allanton, as executors of the will of theiate George; Nichol, from part of a judgment delivered last October ■by the Chief Justice, wherein' his Honour, subject to the exclusion/of a sixth interest in the assets (of; the^ partnership between the testator and his /two sons, upheld the assessment by the Commissioner of Stamp .Duties of the dutiable estate.of the deceased.'- ---■ In"1919. George Nichol:made ;gifts of. land to his'two sons and paid gift duty, on them; The, Commissioner .of Stamp Duties claimed =that as the ;lands were used and occupied-by a partnership of which tho testator was ai member, tho gift reserved/ to him a benefit, within section' ole of the Death, Duties Act. The • appellants claimed' that" the . gifts were gifts of a reversion pure "and simple, and, therefore,; that there; was no reserve of any kind, so that accord 1 ingly, thei land was not part of the dutiablo estate of the .testator., ' "v-.-. t' ■ : '■■.'■"'

Mr. Justice Eeed presided, and also on the Bench were Mr. Justice Adams, Mr. Justice Ostler, and 'Mr. Justice Smith.

'~ Mr. A. H,. Johustone, of -Auckland; with': Mr. A..1. Young,' appeared^for the appellants,*, and ..the Solicitor-General (Mr. A. Fair, K.C.)',,with MrJA^Currie (Crown Solicitor) for'the respondent; the Commissioner,of Stamp Duties. '".

r'Legal argument is proceeding,