Baker v. Baker, Eccles & Co.

Citations

• 242 U.S. 394
• 37 S. Ct. 152
• 61 L. Ed. 386
• 1917 U.S. LEXIS 2201

Syllabus

<p>The rule that the personal estate of an intestate has its situs at his domicile, and is subject to be administered and distributed according to the domiciliary laws, is merely a rule of the common law, which the States may adopt, modify or reject, as their policies dictate.</p> <p>Each State has the power to control and administer the personal assets of an intestate found within her borders, such as debts due from a local corporation or the shares of its stock, to satisfy the rights of her own citizens in the distribution of such assets.</p> <p>No State, therefore, has the power, by probate or other proceedings in rem, to fix the status as to .administration, and determine the course of devolution, of personal property of an intestate situate beyond her borders and within the domain of another State.</p> <p>Under the Fourteenth Amendment, the courts of one State are without power to determine by an action in personam the domicile of a decedent or the devolution of his personal assets situate in another State, as against persons, residents of the latter, who do not appear in the proceedings and are notified by publication only.</p> <p>The full faith and credit clause of the Constitution and the act of Congress passed pursuant to it do not entitle a judgment in personam to extra-territorial effect, if it be shown that it was rendered without jurisdiction over the person sought tó be bound.</p>