Colburn v. Addison

173 N.W. 35, 186 Iowa 590, 1919 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 236
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedJuly 1, 1919
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 173 N.W. 35 (Colburn v. Addison) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Colburn v. Addison, 173 N.W. 35, 186 Iowa 590, 1919 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 236 (iowa 1919).

Opinion

Ladd, C. J.

I. J. M. Colburn died intestate, at the age of 75 years, February 11, 1915. He had' never married. E. H. Addison was duly appointed and qualified as administrator of his estate. Decedent was the son of Orlin Col-burn, Sr., and Balsora Miller Colburn, both of whom departed this life prior to his death, and left them surviving another son, Orlin Colburn, Jr., by them begotten, and a [592]*592daughter of Orlin Colburn, Sr., and Pauline Cole Colburn. The children of Orlin Colburn, Jr., who died before decedent, Nathan 0. Colburn, Edward B. Colburn, and Mil- ’ aiieu dred A. Darley, filed an application, asking that the court determin e the shares to which each of the different heirs is entitled, and praying that each of plaintiffs be adjudged to be entitled to one fourth of the estate. The half-sister of decedent, Catherine Addison, also had departed this life, and left as her only children and heirs, Ella D. Sherwood, Edwin H. Addison (the administrator), and George W. Addison, and they, by way of answer and cross-petition, join in the prayer that the shares in the estate to which each is entitled be adjudicated.

For convenience, we shall refer to the heirs of the brother as plaintiffs, and the heirs of the half-sister as defendants. The former say that decedent’s domicile, at the time of his death, was in Story County, while the latter insist that his domicile was then in Oklahoma. If his domicile was in Story County, his estate, save as interfered with by the laws of Oklahoma, passed under Section 3381 of the Code; and plaintiffs, children of the full brother of decedent, each took one third of three fourths, or one fourth thereof, and each of defendants, children of the half-sister, inherited one third of the remaining one fourth, or one twelfth. On the other hand, if decedent is found to have been domiciled in Oklahoma at the time of his death, the children of the brother of the full blood and those of the sister of the half blood inherited equally, and each would take one sixth of the estate. Section 8427 of the Revised Laws of Oklahoma.

[593]*5931. Descent and DISTRIBUTION : nature and course in general : conflict of laws : personal property under law of domicile. [592]*592The only realty left by decedent was 80 acres of land in Oklahoma, and that passed to the heirs under the laws of that state. Section 6595, Revised Laws of Oklahoma. [593]*593Only personalty remains. In the absence of a statute to the contrary, it is subject to the law of the owner’s domicile, with respect to its disposition inter vivos, and also as to transmission by last testament, or by succession upon death of the owner, intestate. To determine who is entitled to suc-

ceed to such property as heirs of the owner, resort is had to the laws of the state in which the owner had his domicile at the time'of his death, rather than to the laws of the locality in which such personalty happened to be located. Caruth v. Caruth, 128 Iowa 121; In re Estate of Titterington, 130 Iowa 356. By a fiction of the law, it is presumed to attend the person of its owner, and to be present in that state in which he has his domicile. Gilbertson v. Oliver, 129 Iowa 568; Klumpert v. Vrieland, 142 Iowa 434; Wilkins v. Ellett, 9 Wall. 740 (19 L. Ed. 586), 108 U. S. 256 (27 L. Ed. 718); In re Estate of Ingram, 78 Cal. 586 (12 Am. St. 80, with note at page 90). The rule and the reason for it were well stated in Desebats v. Berquier, 1 Binney (Pa.) 336 (2 Am. Dec. 448). See Cornelison v. Blackwelder, 38 Okla. 1 (131 Pac. 701):

“It must be considered as settled that ‘the succession to the personal estate of an intestate is to be regulated according to the law of the country of which he was a domiciled inhabitant at the time of his death.’ If this is the rule in case of intestacy, why should not the same rule prevail with respect to last wills? It is only with the view to promote the general convenience and happiness of mankind that any country allows the laws of a foreign nation to operate in any instance on property within its territory. It is supposed that every man is best acquainted with the law of his own country, and that, when he dies intestate, it is his deshre and expectation that his personal property, wherever siUmted, should be distributed aeoorMng to that law; [594]*594and to gratify this reasonable desire, it is the practice of civilised nations to extend their courtesy toivard each other so far as to permit the laño of the domicile of intestate to prevail

2. Descent and DISTRIBUTION \ nature and course in gen-at?stock?01” Shares of corporate stock are personal property. No one would regard it as realty, and hence it necessarily falls under the other head, of personalty, though it may represent an interest in either. Morrow v. Gould, 145 Iowa 1.

As was said in Judy v. Beckmith, 137 Iowa 24:

“While corporate shares possess some peculiar qualities and characteristics, we think that none have ever been discovered which take them out of the class ordinarily termed ‘personal property.’ * * * If he dies intestate, their distribution to his heirs is governed by the law of his domicile, and not by the law of the corporate domicile.”

See In re Estate of Miller, 90 Kan. 819 (136 Pac. 255), where the court held that:

' “The situs of shares of capital stock in a Kansas corporation owned by one who was a resident of another state at the time of his death, for purposes of administration, is at the 'domicile of the decedent, rather than in the state in which the corporation is organized and has its place of business.”

Frothingham v. Shaw, 175 Mass. 59 (78 Am. St. 475); McKeen v. County of Northampton, 49 Pa. St. 519 (88 Am. Dec. 515).

No statute of Oklahoma to the contrary has been called to our attention, and Section 6738 of the Revised Statutes of that state expressly declares that:

“If there is no law to the contrary in the place.where personal property is situated, it is deemed to follow the [595]*595person of its owner, and is governed by the law of Ms domicile.”

3. domicile: esintenüm “anh essaí-yíce noc" This is in harmony with the rule universally recognized, that personalty must be distributed according to the law of the domicile, and this must govern in the distribution of this estate. See In re Estate of Titterington, 130 Iowa 356. The parties are agreed that:

“Domicile is that place where a man has his true, fixed, and permanent home and principal establishment, and to which, whenever he is absent, he has the intention of returning.”

The decedent had made his home with a tenant on his farm in Washington Township, Polk County, for more than 20 years, and he was there domiciled up to March 1, 1913. He then left the farm, which he had sold; and the issue to be determined is whether thereafter he established Ms permanent residence in Maxwell, Story County, or at Collins-ville, Oklahoma. The evidence that he went from the farm to the hotel in Maxwell, where he stayed part of the time, was at a hotel in Des Moines several days, and went to Oklahoma in April or May, and returned about six weeks later, is undisputed. While gone, he was at the home of Nathan O.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
173 N.W. 35, 186 Iowa 590, 1919 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 236, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/colburn-v-addison-iowa-1919.