Wingert v. State

Briscoe, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is the third appeal in this case. The first will be found reported in Wingert v. State, 125 Md. 536 , and the second in Wingert v. Albert et al., 127 Md. 80 : ²⁹ The appeal now before us is from an order of the Orphans’ Court of Washington County, overruling certain objections and exceptions to the inventory and appraisement of the real estate of P. Hager Wingert, deceased, for the purpose of fixing and ascertaining the collateral inheritance tax to he charged, for the use of the State against the real estate, of the intestate, and which was returned to the Orphans’ Court of that county. The exceptions are filed by the brothers and sisters- of the deceased, his only heirs at law, and the objections to the valuation of the real estate are stated to be as follows: Eirst.

For that the inventory and appraisement- of the real estate of P. Hager Wingert, deceased, as returned to the Orphans’ Court of Washington County, is not a true and perfect inventory of the real estate of P. Hager Wingert, deceased. Second. For that the values placed upon the real estate of P. Hager Wingert, deceased, by the appraisers of the real estate of said deceased and returned to the Orphans’ Court of Washington County are not the true and correct values of the real estate of P. Hager Wingert, deceased, in that the appraisement shows that the whole of the properties owned by the Wingert heirs were appraised instead of the undivided 1/7 interest owned by the said P. Hager Wingert, deceased, during his lifetime. The Orphans’ Court, after a hearing, overruled the appellants’ exceptions, approved the return and directed it to he recorded, and it is from -this order that an appeal has been taken.

The single question presented by the record, is whether the appraisers adopted the proper method of valuation of an undivided one-seventh interest in certain real estate, owned by P. Hager Wingert, deceased, for the purpose of assessing the collateral inheritance tax, chargeable thereon, for the use of the State. The conceded facts of the case briefly stated are these: After the decision of this Court on the former appeals, the Orphans’ Court of Washington County appointed new ap ³⁰ praisers to value the real estate of the deceased, for the purpose of the inheritance tax, and on the 21st of January, 1916, they made an inventory and assessed the valuation of his real estate, at the sum of $33,357.97, and this appraisement was subsequently returned to the Orphans’ Court, by the administrators of the estate, as required by law. The real estate of the deeedent consisted of an undivided one-seventh interest in city property, situate in Hagerstown, Md., and in farms, located in Washington County. The property was owned by the deceased, in common with six brothers and sisters, his only heirs at law, and each held an undivided one-seventh interest therein. .The real estate was valued as a whole, at the sum of $233,505.83 and this valuation was divided by seven, and the result fixed and returned by the appraisers, on the basis and value of the decedent’s interest in the real estate, for the purpose of assessing the inheritance tax, under