Re Stoughton

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 18 November 1941
• Date: 18 November 1941
• Court: High Court

High Court.

In re Stoughton.

In the Matter of the Finance Act, 1894, and in the Matter of the Estate Duty on the Property passing on the Death of ROSE TRENT STOUGHTON, Widow, Deceased (1)

Revenue - Estate duty - Property situate outside Ireland - Succession arising under settlement in will - Whether settlement subject to Irish or English law - Testator domiciled in England - Trustees resident in England - Settlement comprising inter alia land in Ireland - Land in Ireland sold by tenant for life under Settled Land Acts and Irish Land Acts - Portion of purchase money invested in securities in England - Whether succession duty payable in Ireland on securities - Succession Duty Act, 1853 (16 & 17Vict. c. 51), s. 2 - Finance Act, 1894 (57 & 58 Vict. c. 30), s. 2, sub-s. 2.

Petition.

The petition was brought by Reginald Herbert Penley, of Dursley, Gloucestershire, and Wilfred Murray-Browne, of Went House, Uley, Gloucestershire, trustees of the will of Thomas Anthony Stoughton, of Owlpen, Gloucestershire, against the assessment of estate duty on the property passing on the death of Rose Trent Stoughton, who died on the 19th June, 1924.

The facts as set out in the petition were as follows:—

"1. Thomas Anthony Stoughton, late of Owlpen in the County of Gloucester, died on the 2nd December, 1885, having by his will, dated the 6th November, 1868, appointed his wife, Rose Stoughton (afterwards Rose Trent Stoughton) executrix, and George Plunkett and Thomas Trewren Vizard, executors thereof. The said will and one codicil, dated the 8th January, 1877, were duly proved in the District Probate Registry at Gloucester, of the High Court of Justice, on the 10th February, 1886, and re-sealed in the Principal Registry of the Probate Division of the High Court of Justice in Ireland on the 4th July, 1886, by the said executrix and executors.

2. By his said will the said Thomas Anthony Stoughton devised all the lands, hereditaments and real estate being freehold of inheritance situate in England, Wales or Ireland or elsewhere of or to which he should at his death be seized or entitled in possession, remainder or reversion and for either a vested estate or in expectancy, or contingency, or over which he should at his death have a general power of appointment or disposition by will, unto and to the use of the said George Plunkett and Thomas Trewren Vizard, their heirs and assigns in trust to pay the rents and profits of the same premises to, or permit the same to be received by, his wife, the said Rose Stoughton, during her life for her separate use, without power of anticipation, and after her decease in default of issue of the said Thomas Anthony Stoughton in trust to pay the rents and profits to, or permit the same to be received by his brother Charles William Stoughton during his life and after his decease in trust to pay the said rents and profits to or permit the same to be received by William Anthony Stoughton, son the the said Charles William Stoughton, during his life, and from and after the decease of the said William Anthony Stoughton in trust for the first and every other son of the said William Anthony Stoughton successively according to their respective seniorities in tail, and in default of such issue, in trust for the first and every other daughter of the said William Anthony Stoughton successively according to their respective seniorities in tail, and in default of such issue in trust to pay the said rents and profits to Herbert Lionel Stoughton, son of the said Charles William Stoughton during his life and from and after his decease in trust for the first and every other son of the said Herbert Lionel Stoughton successively according to their respective seniorities in tail and in default of such issue in trust for the first and every other daughter of the said Herbert Lionel Stoughton, successively according to their respective seniorities in tail, and in default of such issue in trust to pay the said rents and profits to Charles Cecil Percy Stoughton, son of the said Charles William Stoughton during his life and from and after his decease in trust for the first and every other son of the said Charles Cecil Percy Stoughton, successively according to their respective seniorities in tail and in default of such issue in trust for the first and every other daughter of the said Charles Cecil Percy Stoughton successively according to their respective seniorities in tail with divers remainders over."

(Paragraph 3 of the petition set forth certain powers of jointuring, charging, sale and exchange vested by the will in the trustees.)

"4. The said Thomas Anthony Stoughton died domiciled in England, leaving him surviving his said wife Rose Stoughton, otherwise Rose Trent Stoughton, but no issue."

(Paragraph 5 set out the freehold lands in Ireland of which Thomas A. Stoughton was seized at the time of his death.)

"6. On the death of the said Thomas Anthony Stoughton his widow, the said Rose Trent Stoughton, went into possession or receipt of the rents and profits of his said lands, and so continued until her death on 19th June, 1924. Between the dates of the death of the said Thomas Anthony Stoughton on the 2nd December, 1885, and that of his said widow, the greater part of the testator's real estates in the area now known as Éire éire was sold under the provisions of the several Land Purchase Acts, and the proceeds, amounting to the sum of £60,051 10s. 10d., invested as follows:—approximately £13,272 part thereof, in the purchase of real property in England and in discharging incumbrances on, or making improvements in, settled real estate in Gloucestershire; the balance of the said proceeds of sale was invested in, and was at the date of the death of the said Rose Trent Stoughton represented by the following investments and securities":— (here followed a list of the said securities).

"7. The said Charles, William Stoughton, brother of the testator, died in the gear 1889, and on the death of the said Rose Trent Stoughton, his son, William Anthony Stoughton, became entitled, as tenant for life, to the said settled property and went into possession or receipt of the rents and profits thereof, and so remained until his death on the 15th February, 1936; the said William Anthony Stoughton having died without issue, and having been predeceased by his brother, Herbert Lionel Stoughton (who died without issue on the 24th November, 1905) and also by his brother, Charles Cecil Percy Stoughton, who died on the 30th January, 1924, the said settled property devolved on Maud Eleanor Stoughton, daughter of the said Charles Cecil Percy Stoughton, as tenant in tail in possession. On the 23rd July, 1936, the said Maud Eleanor Stoughton by disentailing assurance of that date, disentailed the English and Irish properties respectively then subject to the trusts of the said will, and thereby became absolutely entitled to the said property."

(The petition then traced the devolution of the trusteeship to the said Reginald Herbert Penley and Wilfred Murray-Browne.)

"9. On the death of the said William Anthony Stoughton the Irish Free State Estate Duty Office called on your petitioners to pass a succession duty account in respect of the lands and property situate in the Irish Free State; as with a few trifling exceptions, all the unsold lands were subject to the provisions of the Land Act, 1923, and the 'appointed day' was the 1st May, 1931, your petitioners contested the claim of the Estate Duty Office that succession duty was payable on the Land Bonds representing the proceeds of sale of such lands, on the ground that the lands had been converted and that the said will was an English settlement.

10. The Estate Duty Office then claimed estate duty on the death of the said Rose Trent Stoughton, and your petitioners prepared and lodged accounts of all the property situate in the Irish Free State at the time of her death, which was subject to the trusts of the said will, comprising the following items:—

A sum of £4,573 14s. 1d., 4¹/₂ per cent. Land Bonds, being purchase money of part of the lands of Breahig, Ardcullen and others which passed to the Irish Land Commission under the Land Act, 1923, Record No. S. 5488.

A sum of £400 4¹/₂ per cent. Land Bonds, representing the redemption price of head rent payable in the estate of Teresa Spottiswood, County Kerry, Record No. 3520.

A sum of £1,168 5s. 9d. representing the value of various tithe rents charged on lands in the County of Kerry.

11. The Estate Duty Office, Dublin, when the said accounts were lodged as aforesaid claimed that the property outside the Irish Free State, representing sales of lands situate in the Irish Free State, was liable to estate duty in the Irish Free State, as property passing on the death of the said Rose Trent Stoughton, by virtue of the provisions of s. 2, sub-s. 2, of the Finance Act, 1894, as adapted by the Adaptation of Enactments Act, 1922; your petitioners contended that the said property was not liable to estate duty in Éire éire on the ground that, being subject to and passing under the settlement created by the said will of the said Thomas...