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accord Hess v. United States, supra. A husband and wife can have
interests so closely aligned that one may be estopped under the
duty of consistency by a prior representation of the other.
Cluck v. Commissioner, supra at 333-336. The same can be true of
the estates of a husband and a wife. Whether there is sufficient
identity of interests between the parties to apply the duty of
consistency depends on the facts and circumstances of each case.
Id. at 335.
There is a sufficient identity of interests between the
Estates of James Letts, Jr., and of decedent to trigger the duty
of consistency. Decedent and James Letts, Jr., were married.
Their estates were a single economic unit. Decedent's husband
left his estate to decedent, James P. Letts III, and JoAnne
Magbee; and decedent left her estate to James P. Letts III and
JoAnne Magbee. Decedent was an executrix of her husband's
estate. James P. Letts III signed both estate tax returns.
JoAnne Magbee is also a coexecutor of, and signed the estate tax
return for, decedent's estate.
The U.S. Court of Claims did not apply the duty of
consistency between an estate and its beneficiaries in Ford v.
United States, 149 Ct. Cl. 558, 276 F.2d 17 (1960). The U.S.
Court of Claims in Hess v. United States, supra, and the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in Beltzer v. United
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