Tangible or Intangible?
Mike Morgan
property to B. Part of the assets of the estate is ten Krugerrands (1 oz.
gold coins).
Are these tangible personal property or intangible?
Mike
Robert Bonomi
Can you touch it?
That's the first definition of 'tangible'.
Mike Jacobs
Is this a bar exam question?
Seriously, it is an issue that could go both ways. Tangible is
something you can touch -- the actual property, and not just a symbol
of that property such as a stock certificate.
You can touch the Krugerrands, and they are worth whatever they are
worth. They are not just a piece of paper that says they are worth
more than the paper they are printed on. So they could well be
considered tangible property.
OTOH cash (American "fake" sandwich coins) and currency is usually
considered an intangible asset because they are merely symbolic of
wealth and have no value in and of themselves.
My (somewhat old) Black's Law Dictionary (5th ed. 1979) considers
"intangible property" to mean, "as used chiefly in the law of taxation,
... such property as has no intrinsic and marketable value, but is
merely the representative or evidence of value, such as certificates of
stock, bonds, promissory notes, and franchises."
If this is a REAL dispute, it is virtually inevitable it will wind up
in court if the parties can't agree. The decedent (peace be on him,
since it probably won't be on his heirs) was remiss in drafting such an
ambiguous will. But if you just want some free opinions on the
subject, my guess is the Krugerrands would come down on the side of
tangible property since they do have intrinsic value based on the
weight of gold in them. They are just a more convenient form of
bullion, or barrels of oil, or pork bellies, or whatever. Commodities
are tangible property (even though certificates SAYING you own certain
commodities are intangible property). Do you see why it's very
difficult to make an estate division based on a distinction
(tangibility) that makes more sense in a taxation context?
--
This posting is for discussion purposes, not professional advice.
Anything you post on this Newsgroup is public information.
I am not your lawyer, and you are not my client in any specific legal
matter.
For confidential professional advice, consult your own lawyer in a
private communication.
Mike Jacobs
LAW OFFICE OF W. MICHAEL JACOBS
10440 Little Patuxent Pkwy #300
Columbia, MD 21044
(tel) 410-740-5685 (fax) 410-740-4300
Paul Cassel
than the face value of the 'money' doesn't make it intangible as would a
right to a patent be.
Similarly, a painting by Picasso is tangible even though a great deal of
its value is beyond the image's informational value.
-paul
ianal
William Brenner
tangible
Function: adjective
Etymology: Late Latin tangibilis, from Latin tangere to touch
1 a : capable of being perceived especially by the sense of touch :
PALPABLE b : substantially real : MATERIAL
2 : capable of being precisely identified or realized by the mind <her
grief was tangible>
3 : capable of being appraised at an actual or approximate value
<tangible assets>
synonym see PERCEPTIBLE