S.6A of the Succession Duty Act (BC), which provided that "where property of a deceased was situated outside the Province at the time of the death of the deceased, and the beneficiary of any of the property of the deceased was a resident at the time of the death of the deceased, duty under this Act shall be paid by the beneficiary in respect of that property of which he is the beneficiary", was intra vires the Province in that it imposed a tax on persons within the Province (i.e., resident beneficiaries), rather than being a tax on property or on the transmission of property (notwithstanding that s. 6A did not expressly state that the beneficiary is "subject to duty"). Dickson J. stated (at p. 352):
"I read the wording 'duty under this Act shall be paid by the beneficiary' in s. 6A as designating the beneficiary as the subject-matter, as well as the payer, of the tax, and the words 'in respect of that property' in the sense of 'as related to', or 'on the basis of', the property of which he is the beneficiary."