Horace Harmon Lurton

“ The question for solution must therefore turn upon the inquiry whether the tax in question had been imposed prior to the going into effect of the repealing act within the intent and effect of the saving clause just set out.
There are cases which go so far as to say that the unqualified repeal of a law as effectually destroys rights and liabilities dependent upon it, not past and concluded, as if the statute had never existed. ”

“ No further event could make their title more certain nor their possession and enjoyment more secure. The law, then unrepealed and in full force, operated to fasten, at the moment this right of succession passed by death, a liability for the tax imposed upon the passing of every such inheritance or right of succession. The time for scheduling or listing was practically identical with the time for payment, and the listing or scheduling was required to be done by the executor charged with payment, but might be and was postponed for reasons of grace and of convenience. ”

“ The only section which imposes any tax upon inheritances is the 29th. Any legacy or distributive share, or gift in anticipation of death, 'passing after the passage of the act,' is, by the express terms of that section, 'made subject to a duty or tax to be paid to the United States, as follows,' etc. ”

“ It is enough, however, to say of that case that no taxable succession having occurred before the repeal of the act, there was nothing to save by the saving clause in the repealing act. In the present case it is equally as clear that if no taxable succession actually vested prior to the repeal of the taxing act, no tax would be saved. ”

“ And this is in accordance with a familiar rule of interpretation which this court has applied and necessarily will be called upon to apply again. That is, that when provisions which have received judicial interpretation are used in a statute, they are supposed to be used with the meaning that had been given to them. Under any other rule judicial decisions would make 'not light, but darkness visible.'
In Clapp v. Mason, 94 U.S. 589, 24 L. ed. 212, a statute passed in 1864 [13 Stat. at L. 223, chap. 173] subjected to a tax legacies and successions. ”

“ There is no reason which would justify the assumption that the lien only attached when the day of payment might arrive,-a date most indefinite before the insertion of the time limit by the amendment of 1902.
But it has been urged that any conclusion which saves a tax from the effect of a repealing act which was not actually due and payable is in conflict with Mason v. Sargent, supra. That case arose under the inheritance tax law of 1864. [13 Stat. at L. 223, chap. 173.] The plaintiff's testator died while the law was in force, it having been repealed October 1, 1870. ”

“ I do not mention the fact as a circumstance which should preclude consideration of the question, but I bring it forward as an element of some power in the discussion. In may not have the 'true, fixed, and resting quality' of stare decisis, but it has nevertheless strong appeal and persuasion. ”