Also known as: per capita
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
A method of distribution in which the property is divided into as many equal shares as there are surviving descendants in the nearest generation plus deceased descendants in that generation who left surviving issue, each survivor in the nearest generation taking one share and any remaining shares passing equally to the next generation.
Dr. Moore's trust directed clinic interests to her issue per capita at each generation. At distribution her son Megan survived and her daughter had predeceased leaving three grandchildren. The nearest generation produced two shares so Megan received one share while the three grandchildren divided the second share equally.
Texas distributed revenues from the Available School Fund on a per capita basis to local districts. Each district received an identical amount for every student counted in the district regardless of local property wealth or student need.
In the summer of 1968 Mexican-American parents whose children attended elementary and secondary schools in the Edgewood Independent School District in San Antonio Texas brought a class action. They sued on behalf of schoolchildren throughout the state who were members of minority groups or who were poor and resided in school districts having a low property tax base. Named as defendants were the State Board of Education the Commissioner of Education the State Attorney General and the Bexar County Board of Trustees. The complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. A three-judge court was impaneled in January 1969. The Texas system of financing public education originated with the state's first constitution in 1845. It evolved through constitutional amendments permitting local school districts to levy ad valorem taxes for school buildings and maintenance. These local revenues were supplemented by distributions from the state's Permanent School Fund established in 1854 and the Available School Fund. In the late 1940s the legislature enacted the Minimum Foundation School Program. Under the program the state supplies approximately 80 percent of the cost of teacher salaries operating expenses and transportation. Each district contributes the remaining 20 percent through a Local Fund Assignment. The assignment is calculated by an economic index reflecting relative taxpaying ability. Every district also levies additional local property taxes beyond the assignment to supplement its foundation grant. For the 1967-1968 school year the Edgewood Independent School District had an average assessed property value of $5960 per pupil and a median family income of $4686. It raised $26 per pupil through local taxation at a rate of $1.05 per $100 of assessed valuation. It received $222 per pupil from the Foundation Program and obtained $108 in federal funds for a total of $356 per pupil. By comparison the Alamo Heights Independent School District had an assessed property value exceeding $49000 per pupil and a median family income of $8001. It raised $333 per pupil locally at a rate of $0.85 per $100 received $225 from the Foundation Program and $36 in federal funds for a total of $594 per pupil. Similar disparities in per-pupil expenditures existed throughout the state. They were largely attributable to differences in the amount of taxable property within each district. In December 1971 the three-judge District Court rendered judgment holding the Texas school finance system unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The State appealed. The Supreme Court noted probable jurisdiction in 1972 to consider the constitutional questions presented.
View caseState legislatures historically granted greater per capita representation to rural counties than to urban areas. Each rural resident therefore counted for more in apportionment calculations than each urban resident.
In 1901 the Tennessee General Assembly enacted a statute apportioning the Senate with thirty-three members and the House of Representatives with ninety-nine members among the state's ninety-five counties. The Tennessee Constitution required a decennial enumeration of qualified voters and reapportionment of both houses on that basis. The General Assembly performed reapportionments after the enumerations of 1871, 1881, and 1891. After 1901 every proposal for reapportionment failed to pass. Between 1901 and 1960 the state's population grew from 2,020,616 to 3,567,089. The number of persons eligible to vote rose from 487,380 to 2,092,891. Substantial redistribution occurred from rural to urban counties. Appellants were residents and qualified voters of the urban counties of Davidson, Hamilton, Knox, Montgomery, and Shelby. They brought a civil action in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee against the Secretary of State, Attorney General, Coordinator of Elections, and members of the State Board of Elections. The complaint was filed under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1988. It alleged that continued application of the 1901 statute debased their votes and denied equal protection of the laws. The complaint sought a declaratory judgment that the statute was unconstitutional. It also sought an injunction against conducting further elections under the statute. Alternative relief included at-large elections or a court-ordered reapportionment. A three-judge district court convened under 28 U.S.C. § 2281 dismissed the complaint. The court held that it lacked jurisdiction of the subject matter and that the complaint failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The court characterized the controversy as a nonjusticiable political question. The Supreme Court noted probable jurisdiction. The case was argued in April 1961, set for reargument, reargued in October 1961, and decided on March 26, 1962.
View caseFederal law required per capita shares of certain tribal funds to be paid to enrolled members or their heirs. Each qualifying individual received an identical payment without regard to family size or generational distance.
In the late 19th century, Congress enacted a series of land acts that divided communal Indian reservations into individual allotments for Indians and unallotted lands for non-Indian settlement. The Act of March 2, 1889, allotted 320 acres to each male Sioux head of household and 160 acres to most other individuals on the Great Reservation of the Sioux Nation, with the allotted lands held in trust by the United States. Ownership of these allotted lands fragmented over successive generations into numerous undivided interests, with some parcels having hundreds of owners. Because the land was held in trust and often could not be alienated or partitioned, the fractionation problem grew over time. This created administrative difficulties and economic waste. A 1928 report and comprehensive 1960 House and Senate studies indicated that one-half of approximately 12 million acres of allotted trust lands were held in fractionated ownership. In 1983, Congress enacted the Indian Land Consolidation Act. Section 207 provided that no undivided fractional interest in any tract of trust or restricted land within a tribe's reservation shall descend by intestacy or devise but shall escheat to the tribe if such interest represents 2 per centum or less of the total acreage in such tract and has earned to its owner less than $100 in the preceding year before it is due to escheat. The provision was signed into law on January 12, 1983, and became effective immediately, with no compensation provided to owners of escheated interests. Four enrolled members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe died in 1983 while owning fractional interests subject to the escheat provision. Chester Irving died on March 18, Mary Poor Bear-Little Hoop Cross died on March 23, Charles Leroy Pumpkin Seed died on April 2, and Edgar Pumpkin Seed died on June 23. Collectively the four decedents owned 41 such interests whose values included approximately $100 for the two interests lost by the Irving estate, approximately $2,700 for the 26 interests in the Cross estate, and approximately $1,816 for the 13 interests in the Pumpkin Seed estates. The three appellees are enrolled members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe who are or represent heirs or devisees of the decedents. Mary Irving is the daughter of Chester Irving, Eileen Bissonette is the guardian for the five minor children of Mary Poor Bear-Little Hoop Cross, and Patrick Pumpkin Seed is the son of Charles Leroy Pumpkin Seed and nephew of Edgar Pumpkin Seed. But for the escheat provision the fractional interests would have passed to the appellees or those they represent. Appellees filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of South Dakota claiming that the escheat provision resulted in a taking of property without just compensation in violation of the Fifth Amendment. The District Court granted summary judgment for the Government. The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.
View caseGovernment reports compared per capita drug expenditures for persons over age sixty-five with expenditures for the general population. Each age group was assigned an average amount spent per individual member.
Virginia law made it unprofessional conduct for a licensed pharmacist to publish, advertise, or promote any price for prescription drugs under Va. Code Ann. § 54-524.35(3). The Virginia State Board of Pharmacy regulated the profession to protect public health, safety, and welfare. It licensed pharmacists only after they showed good moral character, graduated from an approved school, completed up to twelve months of experience, and passed a Board examination. Licensed pharmacists remained subject to penalties or license revocation for negligence, fraud, or unprofessional conduct. Prescription drug prices varied sharply even within the same locality. In Richmond the cost of forty Achromycin tablets ranged from $2.59 to $6.00. In the Newport News-Hampton area the price of tetracycline ranged from $1.20 to $9.00. About ninety-five percent of prescriptions were filled with dosage forms prepared by manufacturers. Some pharmacies refused to quote prices over the telephone. An individual Virginia resident who suffered from diseases requiring daily prescription drugs, together with two nonprofit organizations whose members included many users of such drugs, brought suit against the Board and its members. The plaintiffs claimed the ban prevented them from learning where their limited resources could be spent most effectively. A prior challenge to the same statute brought by a drug retailer and one of its pharmacists had been rejected on due-process and equal-protection grounds. The three-judge District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia declared the quoted portion of the statute void and enjoined its enforcement. The Supreme Court noted probable jurisdiction of the Board's appeal.
View caseCongress assessed the impact of a federal statute by examining per capita restaurant patronage in affected communities. Each resident was counted equally when calculating average spending on meals away from home.
Ollie's Barbecue is a family-owned restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama, specializing in barbecued meats and homemade pies, with a seating capacity of 220 customers. It is located on a state highway 11 blocks from an interstate highway and a somewhat greater distance from railroad and bus stations. The restaurant caters to a family and white-collar trade with a take-out service for Negroes. It employs 36 persons, two-thirds of whom are Negroes. In the 12 months preceding the passage of the Act, the restaurant purchased locally approximately $150,000 worth of food, $69,683 or 46% of which was meat that it bought from a local supplier who had procured it from outside the State. The District Court expressly found that a substantial portion of the food served in the restaurant had moved in interstate commerce. The restaurant has refused to serve Negroes in its dining accommodations since its original opening in 1927, and since July 2, 1964, it has been operating in violation of the Act. The court below concluded that if it were required to serve Negroes it would lose a substantial amount of business. The owners filed a complaint for injunctive relief against Attorney General Katzenbach and other federal officials attacking the constitutionality of Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as applied to their restaurant. A three-judge United States District Court heard the case and issued an injunction restraining enforcement of the Act against the restaurant. On direct appeal, the Supreme Court noted probable jurisdiction. This case was argued together with Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States. The District Court held that the Act could not be applied under the Fourteenth Amendment because Alabama was not involved in the refusal to serve Negroes. The court also found no demonstrable connection between food purchased in interstate commerce and the conclusion that discrimination would affect that commerce.
View caseUnder per capita at each generation the estate divides into shares equal to the number of surviving descendants in the nearest generation plus deceased descendants in that generation who left surviving issue. Each survivor in the nearest generation takes one share and remaining shares pass equally to the next generation. Per stirpes instead creates shares at the level of the ancestor's children and subdivides only within each deceased child's line.
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The default rule distributes the property among living class members at the distribution date in the shares they would receive under intestate succession if the designated ancestor had died intestate at that time.
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No. The minor grandchild remains a surviving descendant entitled to a share because no statute disqualifies a descendant solely on the basis of foster care placement.
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A parent-child relationship extends equally to every child regardless of the parents' marital status so a qualifying nonmarital child receives the same per capita share as marital descendants.
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…reapportionment up to date, even where state constitutions in terms require it. In particular, the pattern of according greater per capita representation to rural, relatively sparsely populated areasthe same pattern which finds expression in various state constitutional provisions, and which has been given effect in England…