Clement's Estate

Citations

• 160 Pa. 391
• 28 A. 932
• 1894 Pa. LEXIS 819

Syllabus

<p>French spoliation claims — “ Next of kin ” — Act of Congress of March 3, 1891.</p> <p>The appropriation of money for the payment of French spoliation claims by the act of Congress of March 3, 1891, 26 St. at Large, 897, was a mere gratuity, and in making the gift Congress made it upon its own terms.</p> <p>The right to the fund accrued in 1891, when the act was passed, to those who were at that time the next of kin of the original claimant. Assignees in bankruptcy were expressly excluded, and by necessary implication all other parties, assignees, devisees, residuary legatees, widows, surviving husbands, etc., were also excluded.</p> <p>The act made no express provision for the ascertainment of the next of kin, but passed the fund to the administratrix de bonis non of the original claimant and therefore necessarily to the proper court of his domicile, but in so doing it dictated the scheme of distribution which was expressly to be to the next of kin, and by necessary implication such next of kin were to be ascertained by the law of the domicile. Clement’s Estate, Scott’s Appeal, 150 Pa. 85, reversed.</p> <p>Jurisdiction of orphans' court — French spoliation claims.</p> <p>The ascertainment of the next of kin to a decedent for purposes of distribution is within the general jurisdiction of the orphans’ court, and this jurisdiction may be extended to include such ascertainment with reference to a fund which, though not a part of the decedent’s estate, is, for the purpose of ascertaining who are to take, to be treated as if it were.</p> <p>Next of kin -Act of April 8, 1833.</p> <p>Under the act of Congress of March 3, 1891, an appropriation was made to pay a French spoliation claim to the next of kin of Jacob Clement. When the act was passed, all of the children of the claimant were dead, but there were living four grandchildren, children of a son, and thirteen great-grandchildren, issue of seven deceased children of a daughter. Reid that the four living grandchildren