William R. Day

“ To say that to apply a different rule regulating succession to resident and nonresident decedents is to levy a tax upon foreign estates, is to distort the statute from its purpose to tax the privilege, which the statute has created, into a property tax, and is unwarranted by any purpose or effect of the enactment, as we view it. ”

“ The transfer of certain property within the state is taxed by a rule which considers the entire estate in arriving at the amount of the tax. It is in no just sense a tax upon the foreign property, real or personal. It is only in instances where the state exceeds its authority in imposing a tax upon a subject-matter within its jurisdiction in such a way as to really amount to taxing that which is beyond its authority, that such exercise of power by the state is held void. ”

“ An inheritance tax is not one on property, but one on the succession. (2) The right to take property by devise or descent is the creature of the law, and not a natural right-a privilege, and therefore the authority which confers it may impose conditions upon it. ”

“ Equal protection of the laws requires equal operation of the laws upon all persons in like circumstances. Under the statute, in the present case, the graduated taxes are levled equally upon all interests passing from nonresident testators or intestates. The tax is not upon property, but upon the privilege of succession, which the state may grant or withhold. It may deny it to some and give it to others. The state is dealing in this instance not with the transfer of the entire estate, but only with certain classes of property that are subject to the jurisdiction of the state. ”

“ The question of equal protection must be decided as between resident and nonresident decedents as classes, rather than by the incidence of the tax upon the particular estates whose representatives are here complaining. Absolute equality is impracticable in taxation, and is not required by the equal protection clause. ”

“ And inequalities that result not from hostile discrimination, but occasionally and incidentally in the application of a system that is not arbitrary in its classification, are not sufficient to defeat the law. ”

“ New Jersey could not deny to residents in other States the right to take legacies which it granted to its own citizens, and therefore its power to prohibit all legacies cannot be invoked in aid of a principle that affects the foreign residents alone. ”

“ Counsel for plaintiffs in error sum up their objections to the statute, based on the federal Constitution, as follows:
(1) It taxes the estates of nonresidents more than those of residents, and therefore gives to residents privileges and immunities denied to nonresidents.
(2) It provides for a tax which bears unequally, and therefore is not imposed upon a uniform rule, and it therefore denies to nonresidents the equal protection of the laws. ”

“ We are unable to discover in the statute before us, which regulates and taxes the right to succeed to property in New Jersey upon the death of a nonresident owner, any infringement of the rights of citizenship either of the states or of the United States, secured by either of the constitutional provisions referred to. ”

“ It taxes the transfer of a nonresident's property over which the state of New Jersey has no jurisdiction while it expressly omits like property of residents, that is, real estate without the state, and thereby deprives the nonresident of his property without due process of law. ”