"(1) When the transfer is by will, descent or succession from a resident of the state; (2) When the succession comes from a nonresident, but is of property within the state. "(3) When the transfer is of property . . . within this state, by deed, grant, bargain, sale, assignment or gift, made without valuable and adequate consideration in contemplation of the death of the grantor, vendor, assignor or donor, or intended to take effect in possession or enjoyment at or after such death. When such person, institution or corporation becomes beneficially entitled in possession or expectancy to any property or the income therefrom, by any such transfer, whether made before or after the passage of this act."

It is claimed that the italicized clause of the last sentence shows the legislative intent to impose a tax on previous transfers, so far as lawfully possible, and that it supports the contention that in computing the tax on the value of the transfer of 1916, the value of the transfer of 1908 is to be added to it and the rates of the 1915 act extended on the whole sum to find the tax on the transfer of 1916 so as to treat it as a transfer exceeding $500,000 in value. It may be remarked that the insertion of a period instead of a comma, preceding the word "when" and so dividing subdivision 3 into two distinct sentences, as above shown, is obviously a typographical or clerical mistake and that it should be read as if the comma were inserted. This does not change the effect, but it makes the meaning clearer.

We have seen that the legislature had no power to add to or take from the tax upon the gift of 1908 after it was made. If taken literally and apart from its immediate context, the clause above italicized would express the intent to do so, but the result would be that under the rule established by Hunt v. Wicht, and the other cases first above cited the act would be to that extent unconstitutional and void. Such a result, as we have seen, is to be avoided, when it can be fairly done. We must, therefore, look to the context to ascertain if a meaning is apparent that would produce a result that does not make the subdivision retroactive in effect and brings it within the scope of the legislative power. The first part of this final sentence or clause, in connection with the opening part of the subdivision, states that such transfer tax is to be imposed "when such person,

institution or corporation becomes beneficially entitled in possession or expectancy to any property." In a very common acceptation of its meaning the word "becomes" betokens futurity; something that is yet to happen. The right of the state to the tax is not to vest until the person to be charged therewith "becomes beneficially entitled" to the property. This evidently refers to some time after the passage of the act, and in view of the fact that it would be void if it referred to a past vesting of title, it must be presumed that it was intended to refer to a future vesting of title in possession or expectancy. This would make it inconsistent with the literal meaning of the last clause unless we find that there may be a vesting of title, a becoming entitled, after the passage of the act, which vesting arises from a "deed, grant, bargain, sale, assignment or gift" executed before the passage of the act whereby the words may have literal effect upon transfers vesting in future. It is obvious that the phrase "such transfer" in the last clause refers back to these methods of transfer, and that the clause is to be understood as if it read: "by any such deed, grant, bargain, sale, assignment or gift, whether made before or after the passage of this act.'

"A future interest is either: 1. Vested; or, 2. Contingent." (Civ. Code, sec. 693.) "A future interest is vested when there is a person in being who would have a right, defeasible or indefeasible, to the immediate possession of the property, upon the ceasing of the intermediate or precedent. interest." (Civ. Code, sec. 694.) "A future interest is contingent, whilst the person in whom, or the event upon which, it is limited to take effect remains uncertain." (Civ. Code, sec. 695.) It is competent for the legislature to impose a tax upon any transfer of this character, where the property passing by transfer does not become vested under it until after the act imposing the tax is enacted. Transfers are often made under these sections by some instrument in writing, whereby contingent interests are created to pass in the future and which do not become vested until years after the execution of the instrument. Transfers of this character were considered in Estate of Rogers, 94 Cal. 530 [29 Pac. 962], Estate of Winter, 114 Cal. 186 [45 Pac. 1063], Estate of Blake, 157 Cal. 460 [108 Pac. 287], Estate of Carothers, 161 Cal. 588 [119 Pac. 926], Taylor v. McCowen, 154 Cal. 804

[99 Pac. 351], Hall v. Wright, 17 Cal. App. 504 [120 Pac. 429], and Estate of Washburn, 11 Cal. App. 740 [106 Pac. 415]. Bearing in mind the aforesaid constitutional limitations upon legislative power, we may easily see that the phrase "becomes beneficially entitled in possession or expectancy" was intended to include, among others, estates or interests of this character where the instrument creating them was made before the passage of the act and the contingent title thereby provided for should not become vested until after its passage. With this possibility in mind, we see at once the occasion and purpose of the insertion of the clause "whether made before or after the passage of this act." It was intended to make it clearly include instruments of transfer of this character. Thus all the words of the section may have a clear practical effect in full harmony with the constitution. This, we think, must be held to be its true meaning. [11] The result is that it is not retroactive in effect, that it was not so intended, and that this section does not, by implication or otherwise, refer to or affect the gift which vested in 1908, or authorize the value thereof to be added to the value of the legacy of 1916 for the purpose of boosting the latter into a higher tax rating value.

Another consideration confirms this conclusion. [12] "When a statute is adopted from another state or country and such statute has previously been construed by the courts of such state or country, the statute is deemed, as a general rule, to have been adopted with the construction so given to it." (Lewis' Sutherland on Statutory Construction, 2d ed., sec. 404; Silva v. Campbell, 84 Cal. 420-424 [24 Pac. 316].) Section 2 of the law was first enacted in this state in 1911. (Stats. 1911, p. 713, sec. 1.) Subsequent acts have reenacted it without change, except as to the number. The language is taken from section 1 of the New York Taxable Transfer Act of 1892 (Laws 1892, c. 399), of which it is substantially a literal copy. The court of appeals of that state, in Matter of Curtis, 142 N. Y. 219 [36 N. E. 887], decided in 1894, considered a case where an estate in remainder had been left to one Racey upon condition that he should survive his aunt or should die leaving issue, failing which it passed to persons exempted from the tax. He died without issue and therefore never became vested of any estate in the property.

He left other property and an attempt was made to hold his estate liable for the inheritance tax upon the value of the remainder so left to him. It was held that this could not be done, the court saying that he took no beneficial estate, that his estate could take nothing, and that to compel payment of the tax by the estate was a thing too unjust to be tolerated. This case came under a previous tax law of that state, that of 1885. (Laws 1885, c. 483). A year later the court considered a case where a tax was claimed under the act of 1892, upon an estate in remainder which had become vested in interest in 1876, before there was any inheritance tax law, but which did not vest in possession or enjoyment until 1894. The court held that the words of the act of 1892, from which our section 2 aforesaid is copied, could not lawfully be given a retroactive effect so as to apply to an estate which vested prior to its passage, that they "have their full and natural force when applied to grants and gifts causa mortis," made prior to the act, but not passing a vested title until afterward, and that the remainder vested in 1876 was not taxable under the act. (Matter of Seaman, 147 N. Y. 69 [41 N. E. 401].) As was said in Silva v. Campbell, supra, referring to a part of section 1161 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which had been taken literally from the statutes of New York, "we presume that subdivision 1, supra, was enacted in this state with an understanding of the construction which had been placed upon it in the state from which it was taken." The same presumption applies here. The act must be understood to have the same meaning that at the time of its passage here had already been given to its language by the courts of New York.

Other parts of the act of 1911, re-enacted in 1913, and again in 1915, show that, the legislature understood that this interpretation of this language in subdivision 3 aforesaid had been made in New York and that provision was made for the application thereof. Section 9 of the act provides that when the transfer to be taxed consists of an estate in expectancy "the entire property or fund by which such estate" is supported shall be appraised immediately after the death of the decedent and the market value thereof determined; that the person chargeable with the tax may elect

not to pay it until he shall come into actual possession or enjoyment of such property, in which case he must give bond to secure such payment, and renew the same every five years thereafter until he comes into such possession and enjoyment. (Subd. a.)

Subdivision d reads as follows: "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."

It is plain from this provision in connection with those of subdivision a aforesaid, that subdivision d was intended to provide for the taxation of estates in expectancy which had been created by instruments of conveyance, executed before the death of the decedent, but which did not become vested in the donee or grantee or person beneficially interested until some time subsequent to such death, as suggested in Matter of Seaman, supra. Thus the reference in section 2 to gifts made either "before or after the passage of this act" are shown to be effective upon the estates mentioned in subdivision d aforesaid, and to have been intended to refer thereto. No occasion, therefore, arises for giving the act a retrospective effect.

It is also to be noted that the statute that was in force in 1916 contains nothing expressly declaring that in computing the tax due upon a transfer by gift which had completely vested before the death of the donor, the value of that property is to be added to the value of property received by descent, devise, or bequest at the death of the donor and the sum of the two taxed at the same rate as if they had constituted a single transfer. Provision is made for the appraisement of the property of the decedent immediately after the death of the decedent for the taxation of all ordinary transfers of present vested interests taxable under the act. (Secs. 16 and 17.) In Chambers v. Lamb, 186 Cal. 261 [199 Pac. 33], where there was a gift inter