or trustee shall not be entitled to credits in his accounts, nor be discharged from liability for such tax, nor shall said estate be distributed, unless a receipt so sealed and countersigned by the controller, or a copy thereof, certified by him, shall have been filed with the court.

Any person shall, upon payment to the county treasurer of the sum of fifty cents, be entitled to a duplicate, or copy, of any receipt that may have been given by said treasurer for the payment of any tax under this act.

Refund of tax paid before debts are proven.

§ 12. Whenever any debts shall be proven against the estate of a decedent after the payment of legacies or distribution of property from which the said tax has been deducted or upon which it has been paid, and a refund is made by the legatee, devisee, heir, or next of kin, a proportion of the tax so deducted or paid shall be repaid to him by the executor, administrator, or trustee, if the said tax has not been paid to the county treasurer or to the state treasurer, or by said county treas urer, or said state treasurer (on warrant of the state controller) if it has been so paid.

When stock is transferred by foreign executor. Banks may not deliver

stock without notice. Controller may examine securities. Penalty. § 13. If a foreign executor, administrator or trustee shall assign or transfer any stock or obligation in this state standing in the name of a decedent. or in trust for a decedent, liable to any such tax, the tax shall be paid to the treasurer of the proper county in the transfer thereof. No safe deposit company, trust company, corporation, bank or other institution, person or persons having in possession or under control securities, deposits, or other assets belonging to or standing in the name of a decedent who was a resident or nonresident or belonging to, or standing in the joint names of such a decedent and one or more persons, including the shares of the capital stock of, or other interests in, the safe deposit company, trust company. corporation, bank or other institution making the delivery or transfer herein provided, shall deliver or transfer the same to the executors, administrators or legal representatives of said decedent, or to the survivor or survivors when held in the joint names of a decedent and one or more persons, or upon their order or request, unless notice of the time and place of such intended delivery or transfer be served upon the state controller and county treasurer at least ten days prior to said delivery or transfer; nor shall any such safe deposit company, trust company, corporation, bank or other institution, person or persons deliver or transfer any securities, deposits or other assets belonging to or standing in the name of a decedent, or belonging to, or standing in the joint names of a decedent and one or more persons, including the shares of the capital stock of, or other interests in, the safe deposit company, trust company, corporation, bank or other institution making the delivery or transfer, without retaining a sufficient portion or amount thereof to pay any tax and interest which may thereafter be assessed on account of the delivery or transfer of such securities, de

posits or other assets, including the shares of the capital stock of, or other interests in, the safe deposit company, trust company, corporation, bank or other institution making the delivery or transfer, under the provisions of this act, unless the state controller, or person by him in writing authorized so to do, consents thereto in writing. And it shall be lawful for the state controller or the county treasurer, personally or by representatives, to examine said securities, deposits or assets at the time of such delivery or transfer. Failure to serve such notice or failure to allow such examination, or failure to retain a sufficient portion or amount to pay such tax and interest as herein provided, or violation of the provi sions of this section, shall render said safe deposit company, trust company, corporation, bank or other institution, person or persons liable to the payment of the amount of the tax and interest due or thereafter to become due upon said securities, deposits or other assets, including the shares of the capital stock of, or other interests in, the safe deposit company, trust company, corporation, bank or other institution making the delivery or transfer, and in addition thereto, a penalty of not less than one thousand nor more than twenty thousand dollars; and the payment of such tax and interest thereon, or of the penalty above prescribed, or both, may be enforced in an action brought by the state controller or county treasurer in any court of competent jurisdiction.

Inheritance tax appraisers. Penalty for taking fee not allowed by law. § 14. The state controller shall appoint, and may at his pleasure remove, one or more persons in each county of the state to act as inheritance tax appraisers therein. Every such inheritance tax appraiser (in addition to any fees paid him as appraiser under section 1444 of the Code of Civil Procedure) shall be paid by the county treasurer out of any funds that he may have in his hands on account of said tax, on presentation of a sworn itemized account and on the certificate of the superior court, at the rate of five dollars per day for every day actually and necessarily employed in said inheritance tax appraisement, together with his actual and necessary traveling and other incidental expenses, and the fees paid such witnesses as he shall subpoena before him, which fees shall be the same as those now paid to witnesses subpoenaed to attend in courts of record. Any such appraiser who shall take any fee or reward, other than such as may be allowed him by law, from any executor, administrator, trustee, legatee, next of kin, or heir of any decedent, or from any other person liable to pay said tax, or any portion thereof, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not less than two hundred and fifty dollars nor more than five hundred dollars, or be imprisoned in the county jail ninety days, or both, and in addition thereto the court shall dismiss him from such service.

Superior court to order valuation of property.

15. (1) The superior court having jurisdiction to determine any such tax, either upon its own motion or upon the application of any

interested person, including the state controller or county treasurer, shall by order direct the person, or one of the persons, appointed pursuant to section 14 of this act to fix the clear market value of property of persons whose estates shall be subject to the payment of any tax under this act. Every such appraiser shall forthwith give notice by mail to all persons known to have a claim or interest in the property to be appraised, including the state controller and the treasurer of the county in which such tax is to be paid, and to such person or persons as the superior court may by order direct, of the time and place when he will hear all persons interested in the appraisement of such estate. He shall thereupon appraise the said property at its fair market value as herein prescribed; and for the purpose of making said appraisement the said appraiser is hereby authorized to issue subpoenas and compel the attendance of witnesses before him, to administer oaths, and to take the evidence of such witnesses under oath concerning such property and the value thereof; and he shall make report thereof and of such value in writing to the said superior court, together with the depositions of the witnesses examined, and such other facts in relation thereto as said superior court may order or require; and the value of every future or contingent or limited estate, income, or interest shall, for the purposes of this act, be determined by the rule, method, and standards of mortality and of value that are set forth in the actuaries' combined experience tables and mortality for ascertaining the value of policies of life insurance and annuities, and for the determination of the liabilities of life insurance companies, save that the rate of interest to be assessed in computing the present value of all future interests and contingencies shall be five per centum per annum.

The insurance commissioner shall, on the application of any superior court, determine the value of any future or contingent estates, income or interest therein limited, contingent, dependent or determinable upon the life or lives of persons in being, upon the facts contained in any such appraiser's report, or other facts to him submitted by said court, and certify the same to the superior court, and his certificate shall be conclusive evidence that the method of computation adopted therein is correct.

In estimating the value of any estate or interest in property, to the beneficial enjoyment or possession whereof there are persons or corporations presently entitled thereto, no allowance shall be made on account of any contingent encumbrance thereon, nor on account of any contingency upon the happening of which the estate or property or some part thereof or interest therein might be abridged, defeated or diminished; provided, however, that in the event of such encumbrance taking effect as an actual burden upon the interest of the beneficiary, or in the event of the abridgment, defeat or diminution of said estate or property or interest therein as aforesaid, a return shall be made to the person properly entitled thereto of a proportionate amount of such tax on account of the encumbrance when taking effect, or so much as will reduce the same to

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the amount which would have been assessed on account of the actual duration or extent of the estate or interest enjoyed. Such return of tax shall be made in the manner provided by section 12 hereof upon order of the court having jurisdiction.

Where any property shall, after the passage of this act, be transferred subject to any charge, estate or interest, determinable by the death of any person, or at any period ascertainable only by reference to death, the increase accruing to any person or corporation upon the extinction or determination of such charge, estate or interest, shall be deemed a transfer of property taxable under the provisions of this act in the same manner as though the person or corporation beneficially entitled thereto had then acquired such increase from the person from whom the title to their respective estates or interests is derived.

When property is transferred in trust or otherwise, and the rights, interest or estates of the transferees are dependent upon contingencies or conditions whereby they may be wholly or in part created, defeated, extended or abridged, a tax shall be imposed upon said transfer at the highest rate which, on the happening of any of the said contingencies or conditions, would be possible under the provisions of this act, and such tax so imposed shall be due and payable forthwith by the executors or trustees out of the property transferred; provided, however, that on the happening of any contingency whereby the said property, or any part thereof, is transferred to a person or corporation exempt from taxation under the provisions of this act, or to any person taxable at a rate less than the rate imposed and paid, such person or corporation shall be entitled to a return of so much of the tax imposed and paid as is the difference between the amount paid and the amount which said person or corporation should pay under the provisions of this act. Such return of overpayment shall be made in the manner provided by section 12 of this act, upon order of the court having jurisdiction.

Estates in expectancy which are contingent or defeasible and in which proceedings for the determination of the tax have not been taken or where the taxation thereof has been held in abeyance, shall be appraised at their full, undiminished value when the persons entitled thereto shall come into the beneficial enjoyment or possession thereof, without diminution for or on account of any valuation theretofore made of the particular estates for purposes of taxation, upon which said estates in expectancy may have been limited.

Where an estate for life or for years can be devested by the act or omission of the legatee or devisee it shall be taxed as if there were no possibility of such devesting.

The report of the appraiser shall be made in duplicate, one of which duplicates shall be filed with the clerk of said court and the other in the office of the state controller.

(2) From such report of appraisal and other proof relating to any such estate, or property, before the superior court, said court shall, by order, forthwith assess and fix the market value of such property and the

amount of tax to which the same is liable, and the clerk of said court shall immediately give notice thereof by mail to the county treasurer and the state controller and to all interested persons who shall have furnished said clerk with their names and addresses for the purpose of receiving such notice.

But said superior court may determine such tax or taxes without appointing an inheritance tax appraiser; provided, that in such determination, said court shall first fix a day upon which it will hear all parties interested in said property and in said tax, and said court shall order the clerk thereof to give notice of said hearing for such time, not less than ten days, and in such manner as said court shall direct, and said clerk shall at least ten days before said hearing mail a copy of such notice to the county treasurer and a copy to the state controller.

Superior court to have jurisdiction.

§ 16. The superior court in the county in which is situate the real property of a decedent who was not a resident of the state, or if there be no real property, then in the county in which any of the personal property of such nonresident is situate, or in the county of which the decedent was a resident at the time of his death, shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine all questions in relation to the tax arising under the provisions of this act, and the court first acquiring jurisdiction hereunder shall retain the same, to the exclusion of every other.

Court to cite persons to appear when transfer has been made and tax not paid.

§ 17. If it shall appear to the superior court upon petition of the state controller or the county treasurer or any other interested person that any transfer has been made within the meaning of this act and the taxability thereof and the liability for such tax and the amount thereof have not been determined, and that no proceedings are pending in any court in this state wherein the taxability of such transfer, the liability therefor and the amount thereof may be determined, said court shall issue a citation, citing the persons who may appear liable therefor, or known to own any interest in or part of the property transferred, to appear before the court on a day certain, not more than ten weeks from the date of such citation, and show cause why said tax should not be determined and paid. The service of such citation, and the time, manner, and proof thereof, and the hearing and determination thereon, and the enforcement of the determination or decree, shall conform to the provisions of chapter XII of title XI of part III of the Code of Civil Procedure; and the clerk of the court shall, upon the request of the state controller or the treasurer of the county, furnish, without fee, one or more transcripts of such decree, and the same shall be docketed and filed by the county clerk of any county in the state, without fee, in the same manner and with the same effect as provided by section 674 of said Code of Civil Procedure for filing a transcript of an original docket. The superior court may hear the said cause upon the relation of the parties and the testimony of witnesses,