Opinion · Supreme Court of the United States
Thormann v. Frame
Thormann v. Frame, 176 U.S. 350 (1900)
- Type
- Opinion
- Court
- Supreme Court of the United States
- Jurisdiction
- Federal
- Date
- 1900-02-26
- Topic
- general
*353 Mr. Chief Justice Fuller, after making the above statement of the case, delivered the opinion of the court. The contention is that the issuing of letters of administra-* tion to Mrs. Thormann by the civil district court of the parish of Orleans was an adjudication that Fabacher jvas domiciled in that parish at the time of. his death; that Mrs. Thormann was sole surviving heir; that he died intestate; that this adjudication was in all these respects conclusive against the world; and that the Wisconsin courts in admitting the will to probate did not give to the Louisiana proceedings that full faith and credit to which they were entitled under the Constitution and laws of the United States, and, therefore, denied a right secured thereby.
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Headnotes
- Civil Procedure — Choice of Law The constitutional command that full faith and credit be given in each State to the judicial proceedings of other States does not preclude inquiry into the jurisdiction of the court rendering the judgment over the subject matter or the parties affected by it, or into the facts necessary to give such jurisdiction. 176 U.S. at 356
- Civil Procedure — Choice of Law The bare appointment of an executor or administrator of a deceased person by the courts of one State does not, on principle or authority, foreclose inquiry into the domicile of the deceased in the courts of another State. 176 U.S. at 356
- Civil Procedure — Choice of Law Administration may generally be granted in any State or Territory where unadministered personal property of a deceased person is found, or where real property subject to the claim of any creditor of the deceased is situated. 176 U.S. at 356
- Civil Procedure — Res Judicata An appointment of an administrator operates as a judgment and binds only by way of estoppel; as a judgment in rem it binds only property within the control of the court that rendered it, and as a judgment in personam it binds only the parties and their privies, and an ex parte grant of letters of administration determining the right to administer assets within the jurisdiction does not adjudicate the decedent's domicile so as to conclude courts of another sovereignty. 176 U.S. at 356
- Civil Procedure — Probate Decrees — Conclusiveness as to Domicile Where an order appointing an administrator neither makes nor recites any finding as to the decedent's last domicile, and such a finding was unnecessary to the court's jurisdiction because the decedent died and left property within the jurisdiction, no finding of domicile is to be presumed, and the probate decree is not conclusive in rem on that question. 176 U.S. at 356
THORMANNv. FRAME,176 U.S. 350(1900)
20 S.Ct. 446
THORMANNv. FRAME.
ERROR TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE COUNTY OF WAUKESHA STATE OF WISCONSIN.
No. 341.
Submitted January 22, 1900.
Decided February 26, 1900.
JOSEPH Fabacher died March 3, 1897, in the city of New
Orleans, leaving a last will and testament dated October 29,
1896, in which he described himself as of Waukesha, Wisconsin,
where the will was executed and where he had a residence and a
considerable amount of personal property. His widow and ten of
his children were named as legatees and devisees. On March 27,
1897, A.J. Frame, appointed executor, presented the will for
probate in the county court of Waukesha County, Wisconsin,
alleging that it had been duly executed under the laws of
Wisconsin, and that Joseph Fabacher was at the time of his
decease "an inhabitant of the said county of Waukesha."
Publication of the application was made according to law and the
matter set for hearing May 4, 1897. On that day Antoinette
Thormann, daughter of Fabacher by a prior marriage, appeared and
objected to the admission of the instrument to probate, alleging
herself to be, under the law of Louisiana, the sole heir of the
deceased, and also setting forth matters, which, it was
contended, would by the law of that State disqualify the
beneficiaries named in the will from taking under it, and
averring, as to Joseph Fabacher, that "continuously ever since
1843 up to and at the time of his death he, the said deceased,
was domiciliated in the city of New Orleans, in the State of
Louisiana, and an inhabitant and resident thereof, and that this
court has no jurisdiction in the probate of said alleged last
will and testament and in the settlement and distribution of said
estate of said deceased." She further charged that any attempt on
the part of Fabacher to acquire or create a domicil at Waukesha
was in fraud of her rights; that the will was procured by undue
influence; and that it was not duly executed in the manner and
form required by law. It was conceded that Fabacher's adult
children resided in New Orleans, but insisted that the domicil of
the minor children was in Wisconsin, and a guardianad litem
was appointed as to them. Trial was had in the county court,
which held the will in all respects valid; that at the time of
his death and some time prior thereto, Joseph Fabacher was
domiciled in the county of Waukesha, State of Wisconsin; and that
the will was entitled to probate.
The case was then carried to the Circuit Court of Waukesha
Page 352
County and there tried before a jury, who returned a verdict
sustaining the will and finding the domicil of Joseph Fabacher at
the time of his death, March 3, 1897, to have been at the city of
Waukesha, whereupon the circuit court made findings of fact and
conclusions of law and entered judgment admitting the will to
probate and affirming the judgment to that effect of the county
court. A large amount of testimony was introduced on these
trials, and among other things it appeared that on March 29,
1897, Antoinette Thormann petitioned the civil district court for
the parish of Orleans, Louisiana, to be appointed administratrix
of the succession of Joseph Fabacher, her father, asserting that
he "was at the time of his death and many years before a citizen
of Louisiana, domiciled and residing in the city of New Orleans;
that said deceased left property in this city and within the
jurisdiction of this honorable court," and "that your petitioner
is the sole surviving heir and legitimate child of said deceased,
issue of his marriage with petitioner's mother. . . ." Letters of
administration were granted by the court April 30, 1897.
The inventory stated the property of deceased as "one marble
tomb in lot situated in St. Joseph cemetery, # 2, bearing the
inscription, `Family of Joseph Fabacher;' also two (2) galvanized
iron sofas and five (5) vases, valued by said appraisers at the
sum of thirty-five hundred dollars ($3500)." An attempt was made
to inventory some household effects, which, however, were claimed
as the property of one of the sons.
From the judgment of the Circuit Court of Waukesha County an
appeal was taken to the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, the judgment
affirmed, and the record remanded to the Circuit Court.
102 Wis. 653. A writ of error having been sued out from this
court, motions to dismiss or affirm were submitted.
But it is objected that no such right was specially set up or claimed in the county and circuit courts, and this would appear to have been so. The Louisiana record was not pleaded, and seems to have been offered and admitted in evidence as tending to throw light on the question of domicil, and not as concluding it. Mrs. Thormann contested that question on the merits, and also denied the validity of the will in respect of its execution, and because of undue influence. As the Supreme Court was reviewing the decision below for errors committed there, it would ordinarily follow that error could not be predicated on the deprivation of a right which had not been asserted, and perhaps might properly be held to have been waived.
However, while we think that on this record there was color for the motion to dismiss, we shall decline to sustain that motion inasmuch as the Supreme Court in its opinion considered the particular question here presented, but will dispose of the case on the motion to affirm as the ruling of that court, so far as open to our examination, is so obviously correct, under the circumstances, that further argument is unnecessary.
The question before us is whether the Supreme Court deprived Mrs. Thormann of a right secured to her by the Constitution and laws of the United States in holding that her appointment as administratrix of the succession of JosephPage 354Fabacher was not a conclusive adjudication that Fabacher's domicil was at the time of his death in the parish of Orleans, Louisiana. The court said: "The record of the Louisiana court in evidence merely shows that the contestant was, after appropriate proceedings, appointed administratrix of the succession of the deceased, and that the inventory of the estate there presented consisted of the tomb, etc. There was no attempt in that court to adjudicate as to the property situated in Wisconsin nor as to the domicil of the deceased. That court, it may be conceded, had jurisdiction as to any tangible property actually located in the State. . . . Certainly there was no adjudication in the Louisiana court which precluded the county court of Waukesha County from taking jurisdiction and admitting the will to probate and administering so much of the estate as was actually located in Wisconsin, and this includes the bonds, mortgages and evidences of debt deposited in the Waukesha bank with the president thereof, who is executor of the will."
Fabacher's property in Wisconsin consisted of movables and immovables. His will was executed in that State in accordance with its laws, and was open to no objection for want of testamentary capacity. But Mrs. Thormann resisted the probate on the ground that the will was invalid by the law of Louisiana, and that that law must be applied in Wisconsin, because Louisiana was, and Wisconsin was not, the domicil of the deceased. We need not go into the rules and their exceptions governing such cases, for the issue as to Fabacher's domicil, raised by Mrs. Thormann in the Wisconsin proceedings to which she made herself a party, was regularly tried at large and determined against her. Nevertheless she contended in the state Supreme Court that the judgment below was erroneous as matter of law, because the question of domicil had been absolutely concluded by her appointment in Louisiana.
Yet the proceeding in Louisiana, instituted, it may be remarked, after the will was presented for probate in Wisconsin, amounted to no more than anex parteapplication for letters of administration and a grant thereof. Doubtless the destinationPage 355of the tomb and accompanying seats and vases was thereby fixed, but not that of property in Wisconsin; nor can the bare appointment be held, on principle or authority, to foreclose inquiry into the fact of domicil in the courts of another sovereignty.
The technical distinction between an original and an ancillary administration is unimportant here.
Whatever the effect of the appointment, it must be as a judgment and operate by way of estoppel. Now a judgmentin rembinds only the property within the control of the court which rendered it; and a judgmentin personambinds only the parties to that judgment and those in privity with them. This appointment cannot be treated as a judgmentin personam, and as a judgmentin remit merely determined the right to administer the property within the jurisdiction, whether considered as directly operating on the particular things seized, or the general status of assets there situated.
In this country the general rule is, "that administration may be granted in any State or Territory where unadministered personal property of a deceased person is found, or real property subject to the claim of any creditor of the deceased." 1 Woerner on Administration, (2d ed.) § 204.
As to successions, the law of Louisiana provides as follows (Code of Practice, 1899):
"Art. 929. The place of the opening of successions is fixed as follows:
"In the parish where the deceased resided, if he had a domicil or fixed place of residence in this State.
"In the parish where the deceased owned immovable property, if he had neither domicil or residence in this State, or in the parish in which it appears by the inventory, his principal effects are, . . . if he have effects in different parishes.
"In the parish in which the deceased has died, if he had no fixed residence, nor any immovable effects within this State, at the time of his death."
The order of appointment by the Louisiana court did not make, nor did the letters themselves recite, any finding as to Fabacher's last domicil, and as he died in the parish ofPage 356Orleans, and owned, as contended, immovable property, and effects, there, such a finding was wholly unnecessary to jurisdiction, and is not to be presumed.
InDe Morav.Concha, 29 Ch. Div. 268, it was held that the decree of a probate court was not conclusivein remas to domicil, although the fact was found therein, because it did not appear that the decree was necessarily based on that finding; and it was doubted whether the findings on which judgmentsin remare based are in all cases conclusive against the world. The decision was affirmed in the House of Lords. 11 App. Cas. 541. The case is a leading and instructive one, was ably argued, and has been repeatedly followed since the judgment was pronounced.
InBrighamv.Fayerweather,140 Mass. 411, conclusive effect to judgments in probate proceedings in respect of their grounds was denied altogether.
Again, it is thoroughly settled that the constitutional provision that full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the judicial proceedings of other States, does not preclude inquiry into the jurisdiction of the court in which the judgment is rendered, over the subject-matter, or the parties affected by it, or into the facts necessary to give such jurisdiction.Thompsonv.Whitman, 18 Wall. 457;Colev.Cunningham,133 U.S. 107;Grover and Baker Sewing Machine Co. v.Radcliffe,137 U.S. 287;Simmonsv.Saul,138 U.S. 439;Reynoldsv.Stockton,140 U.S. 254;Cooperv.Newell,173 U.S. 555.
The point before us is a narrow one, but in any aspect in which it may be considered we are unable to assent to the view that the Supreme Court of Wisconsin was bound to treat the proceeding in Louisiana as conclusively determining the question of domicil; and unless it was so bound its decision deprived plaintiff in error of no right secured to her by the Constitution and laws of the United States.Judgment affirmed.Page 357