$473 of this act shall be deemed to take place to the extent of such omissions or failure, in the same manner as though the persons or corporations thereby becoming entitled to the possession or enjoyment of the property to which such power related had succeeded thereto by a will of the donee of the power failing to exercise such power, taking effect at the time of such omission or failure." The validity of this tax was attacked in the courts of New York upon objections pertaining to both the Federal and state Constitutions. The latter are not open here, and we shall consider the case only so far as it relates to the objections made to the validity of this statute by reason of alleged violations of the Federal Constitution. These are: First, that by the imposition of the tax the property of the beneficiaries is taken without due process of law, in violation of the 14th Amendment; and, second, that such taxation violates the obligation of a contract within the protection of § 10 of article 1 of the Federal Constitution. The objection that the property is taken without due process of law is based upon the argument that the estate in remainder was derived from the deeds of William B. Astor, and not under the power of appointment received from those deeds by Mrs. Laura A. Delano. In support of this contention, common-law authorities are cited to the proposition that an estate created by the execution of a power takes effect in the same manner as if it had been created by the deed which raised the power; that the beneficiary takes, not under the execution of the power by the donee, but by authority and under grant from the grantor, in like manner as if the power and the instrument which created it had been incorporated into one instrument. 4 Kent, Com. 327; 2 Washb. Real Prop. 320. The argument is that the estate which arose by the exercise of the power came from William B. Astor, and not from Laura A. Delano, and was vested long before the passage of the amendment of 1897, under the authority of which the tax was imposed, and to tax the exercise of the power therefore takes property without due process of law. However technically correct it may be to say that the estate came from the donor, and not from the donee, of the power, it is self-evident that it was only upon the exercise of the power that the estate in the plaintiffs in error became complete. Without the exercise of the power of appointment the estates in remainder would have gone to all in the class named in the deeds of William B. Astor. By the exercise of this power some were devested of their estates and the same were vested in others. It may be that the donee had no interest in the estate as owner, but it took her act of appointment to finally transfer the estate to some of the class and take it from others. Notwithstanding the common-law rule that estates created by the execution of a power take effect as if created by the original deed, for some purposes the execution of the power is considered the source of title. It is so within the purpose of the registration acts. A person deriving title under an appointment is considered as claiming under the donee within the meaning of a covenant for quiet enjoyment. 2 Sugden, Powers, 3d ed. 19. "So, on an issue to try whether the plaintiff was entitled by two writings, or any other, purporting a will of J. S., and the evidence was of a feoffment to the use of such person as J. S. should appoint by his will, in which case it was contended that the devisees were in by the feoffment, and not by the will, the court held that this was only fictione juris, for that they were not in without the will, and therefore that was the principal part of the title, and such proof was good enough and pursuant to the issue, and a verdict was accordingly given for the plaintiff." Sugden on Powers, vol. 2, p. 19, citing Bartlet v. Ramsden, 1 Keble, 570. So, in the present case, the plaintiffs in error are not in without the exercise of the power by the will of Mrs. Delano. er. By statute in England, for the purposes of taxation, it has been provided that the donee of the power shall be regarded, in case of a general power, as the one from whom the estate came. In Atty. Gen. v. Upton, L. R. 1 Exch. 224, the court of exchequer had under consideration the succession duty act (16, 17 Vict. chap. 51), and it was held that the appointee under a general power of appointment, taking effect on the death happening since the commencement of the act, takes succession from the donee of the pow. The testator, Admiral Fanshawe, by will devised certain lands to the use of his wife, Caroline Fanshawe, for life, remainder to such use as she should by deed or will appoint, and, in default of appointment, for the use and benefit of testator's nephews, C. F. and J. F. Fanshawe, and their issue. She by deed appointed to the use that trustees should, after her death, receive an annuity during the lives of the wife of the testator's nephew, and of the children of the nephew by her, in trust for the separate use of the wife, Elizabeth Fanshawe. Section 4 of the act, which is there construed, provides that any person having a general power of appointment, under any disposition of property, taking effect upon the death of any *476 The exercise of the power bestowing property in the present case was made by will. And we need not consider the case, expressly reserved by the court of appeals in its opinion, as to the result if it had been exercised by deed. person dying after the time appointed for | plete by the exercise of a power subsequent the commencement of the act, shall, in the to its enactment. event of his making any appointment thereunder, be deemed to be entitled, at the time of his exercising such power, to the property or interest thereby appointed as a succession derived from the donor of the power. All the judges agreed that under 8 4 of the act the nephew's wife took the annuity as a suc- That the will was effectual to transfer the cession from the testator's widow, and not estate was ruled by the court of appeals, and from the testator himself; that, therefore, its decision on this question is binding here, a duty of 10 per cent was payable. Bram- as was held in Orr v. Gilman, 183 U. S. well, B., was of opinion that the duty was 278, 46 L. ed. 196, 22 Sup. Ct. Rep. 213, also payable under § 2, which provides that which came here for a review of a decision of "every past or future disposition of proper- the court of appeals of New York, renty, by reason whereof any person has ordered in Re Dows, 167 N. Y. 227, 52 L.R. shall become beneficially entitled to any A. 433, 88 Am. St. Rep. 509, 60 N. E. 439,property shall be deemed to have a case which arose under the same statute of conferred, or to confer, on the person en- 1897. In that case the testator devised real titled by reason of any such disposition estate in trust to pay the income to his son! for life, and, upon his death, to vest absolutely and at once in his children and the issue of his deceased children, as his son should appoint by will. If, however, the son should die intestate, the estate was to vest absolutely and at once in his children then living, and the issue of the deceased children. The son exercised the power of appointment by his last will, probated in 1899. court of appeals held that the property was subject to the taxation imposed by the act of 1897; that such tax was on the right of succession, and not on the property. It became important in that case to determine whether the property passed by virtue of the will of the donor, David Dows, Senior, and then became vested in the grandchildren, or only became vested in them when the power of appointment was exercised by the will of David Dows, Junior. a succession." In speaking of this section the Baron said: "Now, will these annuitants take by reason of the will of Admiral Fanshawe? We must look, not at the causa remota, but at the causa proxima, and that is the disposition of Caroline Fanshawe. Again, the act says that the term 'predecessor' 'shall denote the settlor, disponer, testator, obligor, ancestor, or other person from whom the interest of the successor is or shall be derived.' From whom, then, is the interest derived? As I said in Re Barker, 7 Hurlst. & N. 116, these are ordinary English words, and ought to be construed by lawyers as ordinary Englishmen would construe them. Now, not one man in a hundred would say that this interest was derived from Admiral Fanshawe nor from any other person than the donee of the power. I do not mean to deny or attempt to cast any doubt on the rule of law that an appointee takes his estate from the donor of the power, but I say that it is a rule not applicable to the construction of this statute, and it is not true, as is supposed, that there is any decision of the House of Lords to the contrary." The learned Baron seems to have gone farther, as to § 2, than his brethren were willing to. Atty. Gen. v. Mitchell, L. R. 6 Q. B. Div. 548. His observations are, nevertheless, suggestive. While the entire bench recognized the common-law rule that the estate is taken to come from the donor of the power, it enforced the statutory change as to a subsequent exercise of the power treating the estate as coming from the donee, by whose act it was appointed to the beneficiary. The statute of New York in question acts equally upon all persons similarly situated. It affects an estate which only became com The This court held that the answer to this question must, of course, be furnished by the court of appeals in that case. 183 U. S. 282, 46 L. ed. 199, 22 Sup. Ct. Rep. 213. In York had the exclusive right to construe inother words, the court of appeals of New struments of title in that state, and determine for itself the creation and vesting of estates through wills under the laws of the state. "The court of appeals held that it was the execution of the power of appointment which subjected grantees under it to the transfer tax. This conclusion is binding upon this court in so far as it involves a construction of the will and of the statute." 183 U. S. 288, 46 L. ed. 202, 22 Sup. Ct. Rep. 217. In the present case the New York court of appeals has spoken in no uncertain language upon the subject: "As the tax is imposed upon the exercise of the power, it is unimportant how the power was created. The existence of the power is the important fact, for what may be done under it is not affected by its origin. | been to violate any contract right of the If created by deed its efficiency is the same as if it had been created in the same form by will. No more and no less could be done by virtue of it in the one case than in the other. Its effective agency to produce the result intended is neither strengthened nor weakened by the nature of the instrument used by the donor of the power to create it. The power, however or whenever created, authorized the donee by her will to devest certain defeasible estates, and to vest them absolutely in one person. If this authority had been conferred by will instead of by deed, the right to act would have been precisely the same, and the power would have neither gained nor lost in force. parties. It is said that this is so, because, instead of disposing of the entire estate,* 95 per cent of the property included in the power has been transferred and 5 per cent taken by the state; but as there was a valid exercise of the taxing power of the state, we think the imposition of such a tax violated no contract because it resulted in the reduction of the estate. "As we said through Judge Cullen in the Dows Case: 'Whatever be the technical source of title of a grantee under a power of appointment, it cannot be denied that in reality and substance it is the execution of the power that gives to the grantee the property passing under it.' This accords with the statutory definition of a power as applied to real estate, for it includes an authority to create or revoke an estate therein. Real Property Law, § 111. [Laws 1896, chap. 547, p. 577.] Such was the effect of the exercise of the power under consideration, for it both revoked and created estates in the real property and the interests in the personal property. No tax is laid on the power, or on the property, or on the original disposition by deed, but simply upon the exercise of the power by will, as an effective transfer for the purposes of the act." 176 N. Y. 493, 494, 64 L.R.A. 282, 68 N. E. 872, 873. As in Orr v. Gilman, supra, we must accept this decision of the New York court of appeals holding that it is the exercise of the power which is the essential thing to transfer the estates upon which the tax is imposed. That power was exercised under the will of Laura Delano, a right which was conferred upon her under the laws of the state of New York, and for the exercise of which the statute was competent to impose the tax in the exercise of the sovereign power of the legislature over the right to make a disposition of property by will. United States v. Perkins, 163 U. S. 625-628, 41 L. ed. 287, 288, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1073; Magoun v. Illinois Trust & Sav. Bank, 170 U. S. 283, 288, 42 L. ed. 1037, 1040, 18 Sup. Ct. Rep. 594. | Certainly the remainder-men had no contract with the donor or with the state. For whether the remainder-men received aliquot parts of the entire estate or the same was devested in whole or in part for the benefit of others in the class, depended upon the exercise of the power by the donee. The state was not deprived of its sovereign right to exercise the taxing power upon the making of a will in the future by which the estate was given to the appointees. We find no error in the judgment of the Surrogates' Court entered on the remittitur from the Court of Appeals, and the same is affirmed. Mr. Justice Holmes, dissenting: I have the misfortune to differ from the majority of my brethren in this case, and although the argument which seemed and still seems to me unanswerable was presented and has not prevailed, I think that the principles involved are of sufficient importance to justify a statement of the reasons of my dissent. A state succession tax stands on different grounds from a similar tax by the United States or a general state tax upon transfers. It is more unlimited in its possible extent, if not altogether unlimited, and therefore it is necessary that the boundaries of the power to levy such taxes should be accurately understood and defined. I have always believed that a state inheritance tax was an exercise of the power of regulating the devolution of property by inheritance or will upon the death of the owner, a power which belongs to the states; and I have been fortified in my belief by the utterances of this court from the time of Chief Justice Taney to the present day. Mager v. Grima, 8 How. 490, 493, 12 L. ed. 1168, 1170; United States v. Perkins, 163 U. S. 625, 627, 628, 41 L ed. 287, 288, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1073; Magoun v. Illinois Trust & Sav. Bank, 170 U. S. 283, 288, 42 L. ed. 1037, 1040, 18 Sup. Ct. Rep. 594; Plummer v. Coler, 178 U. S. 115, 124, 126, 137, 44 L. ed. 998, 1004, 1009, 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 829; Billings v. Illinois, 188 U. S. 97, 104, 47 L. ed. 400, 403, 23 Sup. Ct. Rep. 272; Campbell v. California, 200 U. S. 87, 94, 50 L. ed. 382, 387, 26 Sup. Nor do we perceive that the effect has Ct. Rep. 182; Cahen v. Brewster, 203 U. S. We cannot say that property has been taken without due process of law, within the protection of the 14th Amendment, by the | manner in which the court of appeals has construed and enforced this statute. Orr ▼. Gilman, supra. ⚫480 543, 550, 51 L. ed. 310, 27 Sup. Ct. Rep. 174. | S. 278, 46 L. ed. 196, 22 Sup. Ct. Rep. 213, See also Re Sherman, 153 N. Y. 1, 4, 46 N. adopting the New York view, 183 U. S. 289, E. 1032. For that reason the power is more 46 L. ed. 202, 22 Sup. Ct. Rep. 213. And unlimited than the power of a state to tax these decisions and some of the other de transfers generally, or the power of the cisions of this court cited above were relied United States to levy an inheritance tax. upon by the court of appeals. 176 N. Y. The distinction between state and United 492, 64 L.R.A. 279, 68 N. E. 871. See, furStates inheritance taxes was recognized in ther, Re Vanderbilt, 50 App. Div. 246, 63 Knowlton v. Moore, 178 U. S. 41, 58, 44 L. N. Y. Supp. 1079, Affirmed in 163 N. Y. 597, ed. 969, 976, 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 747, and 57 N. E. 1127; Re Lansing, 182 N. Y. 238, whatever may be thought of the decision in 248, 74 N. Y. 882. Probably the tax would Snyder v. Bettman, 190 U. S. 249, 47 L. ed. be invalid for other local reasons besides 1035, 23 Sup. Ct. Rep. 803, I do not under- those mentioned in Re Dows, but for the stand it to import a denial of the distinction construction which it has received. Re Pell, reaffirmed by the dissenting members of the 171 N. Y. 48, 60, 57 L.R.A. 540, 89 Am. court. 190 U. S. 256, 47 L. ed. 1038, 23 Sup. St. Rep. 791, 63 N. E. 789. Ct. Rep. 803. If, then, a given state tax must be held to be a succession tax in order to maintain its validity, or if in fact it is held to be a succession tax by the state court of which it is the province to decide that matter, it follows that such a tax cannot be levied except where there is a succession, and when some element or step necessary to complete it still is wanting when the tax law goes into effect. If some element is wanting at that time, the succession depends, for taking effect, on the continuance of the permission to succeed or grant of the right on the part of the state; and, as the grant may be withdrawn, it may be qualified by a tax. But if there is no succession, or if the succession has fully vested, or has passed beyond dependence upon the continuing of the state's permission or grant, an attempt to levy a tax under the power to regulate succession would be an attempt to appropriate property in a way which the 14th Amendment has been construed to forbid. No matter what other taxes might be levied, a succession tax could not be, and so it has been decided in New York. Re Pell, 171 N. Y. 48, 55, 57 L.R.A. 540, 89 Am. St. Rep. 791, 63 N. E. 789; Re Seaman, 147 N. Y. 69, 41 N. E. 401. *It is not denied that the tax under consideration is a succession tax. The court of appeals treated it as such in the present case. It said: "If the power had been exercised by deed, a different question would have arisen; but it was exercised by will, and, owing to the full and complete control by the legislature of the making, the form, and the substance, of wills, it can impose a charge or tax for doing anything by will." Re Delano, 176 N. Y. 486, 494, 64 L.R.A. 279, 282, 68 N. E. 871, 873, Reversing 82 App. Div. 147, 81 N. Y. Supp. 762. That it was such a tax and valid for that reason was decided in Re Dows, 167 N. Y. 227, 52 L.R.A. 433, 88 Am. St. Rep. 509, 60 N. E. 439, Affirmed by this court. Orr v. Gilman, 183 U. This being, then, a succession tax, I should have thought it plain that there was no succession for it to operate upon. More precisely, even if otherwise any element of succession could have been found,-a matter that I think would need explanation,—the execution of the power did not depend in any way upon the continued co-operation of the laws of New York by way of permission or grant. I am not concerned to criticize the statement of the court of appeals that in substance it is the execution of the power that gives to the grantee the property passing under it. It is enough if it is remem bered that the instrument executing the power derives none of its efficiency in that respect from the present laws of New York. It is true that the instrument happens to be a will, and that it could not have operated as a will except by the grant of the privilege from the state at the time when Mrs. Delano died. But what would execute the power depended, in the first place, upon the deed creating it, and if that deed did not co require a will, but only an instrument other-▾ wise sufficiently characterized, it did not matter whether the instrument was also good as a will or not. Ela v. Edwards, 16 Gray, 91, 100. What the deeds which I am considering required was "an instrument in its nature testamentary, to be acknowledged by her (Mrs. Delano) as a deed in the presence of two witnesses, or published by her as a will." The language was chosen carefully, I presume, in view of the incapacities of married women at that time. By the terms used a will was unnecessary. It was enough if Mrs. Delano sealed and acknowledged an instrument in its nature testamentary, in the presence of two witnesses, whether it was good as a will or not. Strong v. Wilkin, 1 Barb. Ch. 9, 13; Heath v. Withington, 6 Cush. 497. This she did. In Orr v. Gilman, 183 U. S. 278, 46 L. ed. 196, 22 Sup. Ct. Rep. 213, the power was created by will, and, what is more obviously mate 4. The claim of a right under the Federal Constitution to prove the truth of certain published articles held to constitute a contempt of court is too clearly unfounded to serve as the basis of a writ of error from the Federal Supreme Court to a state court. [No. 223.] rial, it required a will for its execution, and | Error to state court-frivolousness of Federal question. so might be held to invoke and submit itself to the law in force when the execution should take place. Therefore that case has no bearing upon this. The ground upon which this tax is imposed is, I repeat, the right of the state to regulate, or, if it sees fit, to destroy, inheritances. If it might have not appropriated the whole it cannot appropriate any part by the law before us. And I also repeat that it has no bearing Argued March 5, 6, 1907. Decided April 15, upon the matter that, by a different law, the state might have derived an equal revenue from these donees in the form of a tax. I] do not understand it to be suggested that the state, without compensation, could have appropriated the remainder after Mrs. Delano's life, which Mr. Astor parted with in 1844 and shortly following years. If it could not have done so I am unable to see on what ground this tax is not void. The English decisions throw no light upon the question before us because they are concerned only with the construction of statutes which, however construed, are law. Mr. Justice Moody concurs in this dissent. cal law. 1. The objections that the information in contempt was not supported by an affidavit until after it was filed, and that the suits referred to in the published articles complained of as constituting the contempt were not then pending, present questions of local law, which will not sustain a writ of error from the Federal Supreme Court to a state court. Error to state court-Federal question. 2. A decision of a state court upon a question of law cannot be reviewed in the Federal Supreme Court as presenting a question of the violation of the 14th Amendment to the Federal Constitution because such decision is asserted to be wrong, and contrary to previous decisions of the 1907. N ERROR to the Supreme Court of the State of Colorado to review a judgment upon an information for contempt. Dismissed for want of jurisdiction. See same case below (Colo.) 84 Pac. 912. Messrs. Thomas M. Patterson in propria persona, Harry M. Teller, Charles S. Thomas, Sterling B. Toney, James H. Blood, Harvey Riddell, S. W. Belford, John A. Rush, and Richardson & Hawkins for plaintiff in error. Messrs. L. B. Melville, Horace G. Phelps, Samuel Huston Thompson, Jr., William H. Dickson, and N. C. Miller for defendant in error. Mr. Justice Holmes delivered the opinion of the court: This is a writ of error to review a judg ment upon an information for contempt. 84 Pac. 912. The contempt alleged was the publication of certain articles and a cartoon, which, it was charged, reflected upon the motives and conduct of the supreme court of Colorado in cases still pending, and were intended to embarrass the court in the impartial administration of justice. There was a motion to quash on grounds of local law and the state Constitution and also of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. This was overruled and thereupon an answer was filed, admitting the publication, denying the contempt, also denying that the cases referred to were still pending, except that the time for motions for rehearing had not elapsed, and averring that the motions for rehearing subsequently were overruled, except that in certain cases the orders were amended so that the Democratic officeholders concerned could be sooner turned out of their offices. The answer went on to narrate the transactions commented on, at length, intimating that the conduct of the court was unconstitutional and usurping, and alleging that it was in aid of a scheme, fully explained, to seat various Republican candidates, including the governor of the state, in place of Democrats who had been elected, and that 458 |