Beneficial ownership in spouse's name depends on purchase intention, with later conduct used to confirm no estate duty liability.

Where property is bought in a spouse's name with funds supplied by the purchaser, beneficial ownership turns on the intention at the time of acquisition. The court treated subsequent conduct, including the spouses' respective wealth-tax returns, as relevant evidence of whether the purchaser intended to retain a beneficial interest or to benefit the wife. On the materials available, it inferred that the deceased did not intend to keep any beneficial title. The site was therefore not includible in his estate under section 5 of the Estate Duty Act, and the claim succeeded in favour of the accountable person.

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Issues: Whether the deceased had beneficial title to the site purchased in the name of his wife and whether such interest passed on his death under section 5 of the Estate Duty Act.

Analysis: The property was purchased in the wife's name with funds provided by the deceased. The question was whether the surrounding circumstances showed that the deceased intended to retain the beneficial interest or intended to benefit his wife. The subsequent conduct of both spouses was relevant to ascertain that intention. The deceased did not include the property in his wealth-tax returns, while the wife treated it as her own in her returns. Those materials were treated as sufficient to infer that the deceased did not intend to retain any beneficial interest. The court declined to reject the claim merely on an assumed failure of onus once the evidence on record disclosed the relevant intention.

Conclusion: The deceased had no beneficial title to the property, and the value of the site was not liable to be included in his estate under section 5 of the Estate Duty Act. The finding was in favour of the accountable person and against the Revenue.

Ratio Decidendi: Where property is purchased in another's name with the purchaser's funds, beneficial ownership depends on the proved intention at the time of purchase, and subsequent conduct may be relied on to determine that intention.

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