Opinion
January 10, 1967.
March 14, 1967.
Decedents' estates — Indebtedness — Erroneous payments to decedent by United States — Annuity under Railroad Retirement Act.
Where it appeared that the decedent had received annuity payments under the Railroad Retirement Act of 1937, 45 U.S.C. § 228a-y, it was Held that the orphans' court had correctly decided that the United States was entitled to recover from his estate such payments, under the rule of law that the federal government has a right to recover funds wrongfully, erroneously or illegally paid.
Mr. Justice ROBERTS dissented.
Before BELL, C. J., MUSMANNO, JONES, COHEN, EAGEN, O'BRIEN and ROBERTS, JJ.
Appeal, No. 150, Jan. T., 1967, from decree of Orphans' Court of Montgomery County, No. 65,004, in re estate of Samuel R. Hursh, deceased. Decree affirmed.
Audit of account. Before TAXIS, JR., P. J.
Adjudication confirmed nisi, exceptions to adjudication dismissed and final decree entered. Exceptants appealed.
Bernard A. Ryan, Jr., with him Gordon W. Gerber, Gilbert P. High, and Dechert, Price Rhoads, and High, Swartz, Roberts Seidel, for appellants.
Joseph R. Ritchie, Jr., Assistant United States Attorney, with him Drew J. T. O'Keefe, United States Attorney, for United States of America, appellee.
The lower court determined that, since the decedent was not initially entitled to the annuity he received under the Railroad Retirement Act of 1937, 45 U.S.C. § 228a-228y, because he was rendering compensated services to a corporation formed by him and known as Hursh Associates, Inc., the United States was entitled to recover from his estate those annuity payments under the principle of law that the Federal Government has a right to recover funds wrongfully, erroneously or illegally paid. Albright Estate, 404 Pa. 152, 154, 171 A.2d 169, 170 (1961).
There is not the slightest suggestion that the decedent received these payments other than under an honest mistake nor that decedent realized that the corporate form which he had created to handle his personal business made his receipt of a government annuity improper. Still, since decedent adopted the corporate entity and undoubtedly secured the benefits therefrom in other situations, the executor cannot now reject the corporate entity and hold it to be a mere fiction and treat the corporate activity as decedent's personal activity.
Decree affirmed at appellants' cost.
Mr. Justice ROBERTS dissents.