Byron White

“ The right to an allowance is lost when the one for whom it is asked has lost the status upon which the right depends. If a widow dies or remarries prior to securing an order for a widow's allowance, the right does not survive such death or remarriage. The amount of the widow's allowance which has accrued and is unpaid at the date of death of the widow is payable to her estate but the right to future payments abates upon her death. The remarriage of a widow subsequent to an order for an allowance likewise abates her right to future payments. ”

“ Courts should hesitate to provide still another exception by straying so far from the statutory language as to allow a marital deduction for the widow's allowance provided by the California statute. The achievement of the purposes of the marital deduction is dependent to a great degree upon the careful drafting of wills; we have no fear that our decision today will prevent either the full utilization of the marital deduction or the proper support of widows during the pendency of an estate proceeding. ”

“ Since 1948 § 812 (e) (1) (A) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939 has allowed a 'marital deduction' from a decedent's gross taxable estate for the value of interests in property passing from the decedent to his surviving spouse. [1] Subsection (B) adds the qualification, however, that interests defined therein as 'terminable' shall not qualify as an interest in property to which the marital deduction applies. [2] The question raised by this case is whether the allowance provided by California law for the support of a widow during the settlement of her husband's estate is a terminable interest. ”