Anna Burbank v. Mrs Josephine Ernst

• Decision Date: 26 January 1914
• Docket Number: No. 151,151
• Citation: 34 S.Ct. 299,58 L.Ed. 551,232 U.S. 162
• Parties: ANNA M. BURBANK, Wife of James M. Woodson, and James M. Woodson, Executors of the Last Will of T. Scott Burbank, and Individually, Plffs. in Err., v. MRS. JOSEPHINE ERNST, Legal Tutrix of the Minor, Mary Springer Burbank, et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

232 U.S. 162

34 S.Ct. 299

58 L.Ed. 551

ANNA M. BURBANK, Wife of James M. Woodson, and James M. Woodson, Executors of the Last Will of T. Scott Burbank, and Individually, Plffs. in Err.,

v MRS. JOSEPHINE ERNST, Legal Tutrix of the Minor, Mary Springer Burbank, et al.

No. 151.

Argued January 15 and 16, 1914.

Decided January 26, 1914.

Messrs. Charles S. Rice, Sam Streetman, and Richard B. Montgomery for plaintiffs in error.

Mr. Henry P. Dart for defendants in error.

Mr. Justice Holmes delivered the opinion of the court:

This case arises in the matter of the succession of T. Scott Burbank. He died in Texas on May 10, 1910, leaving a will dated March 22, 1910, which was admitted to probate there. The executors sought to have the will registered in Louisiana, but the tutrix of Burbank's minor daughter and sole heir filed in the succession record a direct action to annul the will on the ground that the testator died domiciled in Louisiana, and that, by the laws of that state, the will was void. The supreme court of Louisiana gave judgment against the will, and ordered the application for registry to be dismissed 'as of nonsuit.' 129 La. 528, 56 So. 430. The error assigned is that full faith and credit were not given to the Texas decree.

Of course, the jurisdiction of the Texas court depended upon the domicil of Burbank, which therefore was open to re-examination. Andrews v. Andrews, 188 U. S. 14, 47 L. ed. 366, 23 Sup. Ct. Rep. 237. The objection urged is that the Louisiana court attributed conclusive effect to Burbank's conduct in Louisiana, taken in connection with the laws there, instead of recognizing that no statute of that state could prevent his acquiring a domicil wherever he actually might be, elsewhere, and instead of treating the question as one of intent and fact. Burbank was one of the executors under his father's will, and as such, on April 8, 1909, at that time being a resident of New Orleans, declared before a notary that then being about to absent himself temporarily from Louisiana, and in order to comply with the law, especially article 1154 of the Revised Civil Code, he constituted one Billings his attorney. If he left the state permanently, his duty, we are told by the supreme court, was to surrender his trust, render an account, and pay over any balance due. It is true that in his Texas will he declared that Texas was his permanent home, and that he made similar declarations orally and in writing; but, on the other hand, it is found that his agent continued to represent him, and it...