Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ The declaration of trust on its face is an ordinary real estate trust of the kind familiar in Massachusetts unless in the particular that the trustees' receipt provides that the holder has no interest in any specific property and that it purports only to declare the holder entitled to certain fraction of the net proceeds of the property when converted into cash 'and meantime to income.' The only property expressly mentioned is the real estate not transferred to the Massachusetts corporation. ”

“ As by D above referred to trustees and associations acting in a fiduciary capacity have the exemption that individual stockholders have from taxation upon dividends of a corporation that itself pays an income tax, and as the plaintiffs undeniably are trustees, if they are to be subjected to a double liability the language of the statute must make the intention clear. ”

“ If we assume that the words 'no matter how created or organized' apply to 'association' and not only to 'insurance company,' still it would be a wide departure from normal usage to call the beneficiaries here a joint-stock association when they are admitted not to be partners in any sense, and when they have no joint action or interest and no control over the fund. ”