Harlan F. Stone

“ Petitioner also insists that the statute violate the Fifth Amendment by authorizing an unrecorded tax lien against the property mortgaged to it and withholding such a lien against innocent purchasers of property which a decedent had transferred inter vivos in contemplation of death. Unlike the Fourteenth Amendment the Fifth contains no equal protection clause and it provides no guaranty against discriminatory legislation by Congress. ”

“ Under § 315 (a) as has been stated, the lien arises on the death of the decedent and becomes effective against purchasers and mortgagees without assessment or demand and obviously before it would be possible to record a notice of lien under the provisions of R.S. § 3186.
Since the enactment of the Revenue Act of 1916, R.S. § 3186 has been amended four times, [1] and § 209 of the Revenue Act of 1916 (which became § 315 (a) of the 1926 Act) has been amended twice and twice reenacted without amendment. ”

“ United States v. Curry, D.C., 201 F. 371, 374, that in the absence of a federal statute requiring government tax liens to be recorded they are superior to subsequent mortgages.
Petitioner contends that Congress, in enacting § 209 of the Revenue Act of 1916, 39 Stat. 780, which, with amendments, became § 315 (a) of the Revenue Act of 1926, did not impose an independent lien but merely made expressly applicable to the federal estate tax the lien created by R.S. § 3186, modifying that lien in some respects as will be further noted. ”

“ Default in payment of the mortgage indebtedness having occurred, petitioner bought in the mortgaged property on foreclosure sale. The trial court found that petitioner acquired the mortgages in good faith and for value. ”