United States v. State

25 Cal. 2d 697
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 30, 1944
DocketS. F. No. 16883
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 25 Cal. 2d 697 (United States v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. State, 25 Cal. 2d 697 (Cal. 1944).

Opinions

SCHAUER, J.

The United States of America has appealed from “the Decree of Settlement of Final Account and of Final Distribution” in the estate of Carl A. Lindquist, deceased, “distributing the residue of the estate of the decedent of the Probate Code of the State of California, and denying to the State of California under the provisions of Section 1027 [700]*700the claim of the United States of America for distribution of said residue under the provisions of Section 450 of Title 38 of the United States Code.” A hearing was granted by this court, after decision by the District Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, Division One, for the purpose of giving further study to the problems presented and in order to provide a decisive precedent for guidance in the settling of similar controversies which it has been suggested would otherwise arise in the future. After such study we have concluded that the opinion of the District Court of Appeal, prepared by Mr. Justice Ward, correctly treats and disposes of the issues involved, and it is therefore, with further discussion concerning one phase of the matter which was the subject of an added memorandum of authorities before us, adopted as and for the opinion of this court. Such opinion (with appropriate deletions of introductory and conjunctive matter as indicated) is as follows:

‘ ‘ [ ] Lindquist, a veteran of the United States Navy, was declared incompetent and the Pacific National Bank of San Francisco was appointed guardian of his estate. Shortly thereafter the Veterans’ Administration awarded him a pension under the provisions of the act of August 13, 1935, ch. 521, 49 Stats. 614 (38 U.S.C. 368) in the amount of $60 a month, and this was regularly paid to the guardian. At the time of the veteran’s death his estate, consisting entirely of an unexpended balance of pension payments'and amounting to the sum of $1,445.87, was turned over to the public administrator, and the Superior Court of the State of California in and for the City and County of San Francisco sitting in probate ordered distribution of the residue thereof to the State of California as escheated property. (Cal. Prob. Code, § 1027.)
"The main question presented is the construction of section 450(3) of title 38, U.S.C. The respondents contend that the act purports to lay down a rule of succession to property— a matter in which the federal government is without authority. The act so far as pertinent here provides as follows: ‘Where any payment of compensation, adjusted compensation, pension, emergency officers’ retirement pay, or insurance under any Act administered by the Veterans’ Administration is to be made ... to a person mentally incompetent, or under other legal disability adjudged by a court of competent jurisdiction, such payment may be made to the person who is constituted guardian, curator, or conservator by the laws of the [701]*701State of residence of claimant, or is otherwise legally vested ivith the care of the claimant or his estate. . . .
“ ‘Authority is granted for the payment [from funds so derived] of any court or other expenses incident to any investigation or court proceeding for the appointment of any guardian, curator, conservator, or other person legally vested Avith the care of the claimant or his estate or the removal of such fiduciary and appointment of another, and of expenses in connection with the administration of such estates by such fiduciaries, or in connection with any other court proceeding hereby authorized, when such payment is authorized by the Administrator. . . .
‘Provided further, That any funds in the hands of a guardian, curator, conservator, or person legally vested with the care of the beneficiary or his estate, derived from compensation, automatic or term insurance, emergency officers’ retirement pay, or pension, payable under said Acts, which under the law of the State wherein the beneficiary had his last legal residence would escheat to the State, shall escheat to the United States and shall be returned by such guardian, curator, conservator, or person legally vested with the care of the beneficiary or his estate, or by the personal representative of the deceased beneficiary, less legal expenses of any administration necessary to determine that an escheat is in order, to the Veterans’ Administration, and shall be deposited to the credit of the current appropriations provided for payment of compensation, insurance, or pension.’
‘ ‘ The state contends that the pension was an outright, absolute and complete gift; that the statute above uses the term ‘escheat’ in a technical sense to mean succession to property where there are no heirs; and that the statute constitutes an attempt by the federal government to regulate the laws of succession of this state as to a particular type of property. It is admitted that the federal government has no power to pass laws regulating succession to property by citizens of the states, that being a power reserved by the Tenth Amendment to the states.
“The appellant contends that the word ‘escheat’ as used in the statute does not have the technical, limited meaning urged by the respondents; that when the statute is read as a whole it has a broader meaning; that the obvious purpose, intent and meaning of the statute is that the federal government has not [702]*702made the gift of a pension absolute and complete, but has retained in itself a contingent reversionary interest—that is, if the pensioner die possessed of any portion of the gift, and if he has not by will disposed of the interest, and if under the laws of the state the gift would otherwise escheat to the state, then the reversionary contingent interest of the federal government will vest.

“ The word ‘escheat’ under the old English feudal system relating to the lapsing or reversion of lands to the lord of the fee upon a failure of heirship has survived but outgrown its restricted meaning. The custom or practice was originally confined to land, but its scope has been enlarged to include personal property. (19 Am.Jur., p. 383, § 5.) In the ease of In re Melrose Ave. in Borough of the Bronx, 234 N.Y. 48 [136 N.E. 235, 237, 23 A.L.R. 1233], the court, in an opinion delivered by Justice Cardozo, said: ‘Escheat, as it survives in the Constitution of New York, preserves the name but ignores the origin of its feudal prototype. In origin it was an incident, not of sovereignty, but of tenure.’ ‘Escheat today is not the privilege of one, but the collective right of all when the individual right has failed.’

“In the United States, a state or some governmental agency is ordinarily the beneficiary of an escheat. In Canada, a province succeeds unless the Dominion by statute provides to the contrary. ‘As between the country or state of domicil and the country or state in which the property is located, real property escheats to the country in which the property is found, since every sovereign state has dominion over the land within its borders. In England it has been held that the personal property of an intestate dying without heirs, located in a foreign country, escheats to that country, and not to the country of domicil of the owner, the maxim “mobilia sequuntur personam” not applying, because the right claimed is not in the nature of a succession.

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Bluebook (online)
25 Cal. 2d 697, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-state-cal-1944.