Josie Baker v. Baker, Eccles Company

Decision Date08 January 1917
Docket NumberNo. 115,115
PartiesJOSIE C. BAKER, Individually and as Administratrix of Charles Baker, Deceased, Plff. in Err., v. BAKER, ECCLES, & COMPANY and Augusta H. Baker, Individually and as Administratrix of Charles Baker, Deceased
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

Messrs. John A. Pitts and E. W. Ross for plaintiff in error.

Messrs. Charles K. Wheeler, Daniel Henry Hughes, and James Guthrie Wheeler for defendants in error.

Mr. Justice Pitney delivered the opinion of the court:

The Federal question presented in this record is whether the court of appeals of Kentucky gave such faith and credit to certain judicial proceedings of the state of Tennessee as were required by art. 4, § 1, of the Constitution, and the act of Congress passed in pursuance thereof (Act of May 26, 1790, chap. 11, 1 Stat. at L. 122, Rev. Stat. § 905, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 1519).

The facts are as follows: Charles Baker died in September, 1912, the owner of certain real and personal property in Hardin county, Tennessee, and of 270 shares of stock of Baker, Eccles, & Company, a Kentucky corporation, of the par value of $27,000, and a claim of several thousand dollars against that corporation for surplus profits. He left a widow, Josie C. Baker, now plaintiff in error, and a mother, Augusta H. Baker, one of the defendants in error. He appears to have left no children or descendants, nor any considerable indebtedness, and the personal estate, if distributable according to the laws of Tennessee, would go entirely to the widow; if distributable according to the laws of Kentucky, it would go one half to the widow, the other half to the mother. The place of his domicil, admittedly determinative of the law of distribution, was in controversy.

Shortly after his death the widow applied to the county court of Hardin county, Tennessed, for letters of administration. The proceedings were ex parte, and her application was granted, the order of the court appointing her administratrix reciting that at the time of his death the residence of Charles Baker was in that county. Afterwards, and in December, 1912, the widow presented to the same court a settlement of her accounts as administratrix, and an order was made reciting that it appeared from proof that Charles Baker died intestate, and at the time of his death was a resident of Hardin county, Tennessee, and that he left no children or descendants of such surviving, but left surviving his widow, the said Josie C. Baker, and under the laws of Tennessed she, as widow, was entitled to all of the surplus personal property; whereupon it was ordered that she, as administratrix, transfer and deliver to hereself, as the widow of the deceased, all of the personal estate in her possession, including the stock in the Kentucky corporation, the certificates for which she held. Subsequently, and on December 28, 1912, the widow, individually and as administratrix, filed in the chancery court of Hardin county, Tennessee, her bill of complanint against Mrs. Augusta H. Baker, the mother, as a nonresident of Tennessee and a resident of the state to Kentucky, and also against several persons who were residents of Tennessee, setting up her appointment as administratrix, averring that her husband died intestate, a resident of and domiciled in Tennessee, leaving his widow as his sole heir and distributee, and his mother and a brother his only heirs at law. The bill further set up the widow's ownership of the stock in Baker, Eccles, & Company, and averred that the mother was asserting an interest in one half of the personal estate left by the intestate, upon the theory that he died a resident of Kentucky and that, under the laws of that state, the mother was entitled to one-half of his surplus personal estate. The prayer was (inter alia) that the mother be brought before the court in the manner provided for nonresidents and be required to assert whatever claim she might have to the estate left by the deceased; and that it might be adjudged that Charles Baker died a resident of Tennessee, and that complainant, as his widow, was the sole distributee and entitled to all of his personal estate. Upon the filing of the bill an order of publication was made, citing Augusta H. Baker as a nonresident to make defense upon a day named, and, she having failed to appear, the bill was taken for confessed against her, and eventually a decree was made 'that the said Charles Baker at the time of his death was a citizen of and had his domicil at Savannah, Tennessee, and that the complainant, as his widow, is his sole distributee, and as such entitled to all of the personal estate of the said Charles Baker, after payment of such debts as were owed by him at the time of his death,' and also that the title to the stock of Baker, Eccles, & Company was in complainant, and that she was entitled to have a new certificate or certificates in her own name issued by the corporation in lieu of the certificates issued to said Charles Baker, and was entitled to receive from the corporation the amount of the accumulated profits and surplus and other amounts due from it to the decedent.

Meanwhile, the county court of McCracken county, Kentucky, had granted letters of administration to Mrs. Augusta H. Baker, the mother, and she, as such administratrix, filed a petition in the McCracken circuit court for a settlement of the estate, making the widow and Baker, Eccles, & Company defendants. The widow did not appear, and a judgment was rendered that Charles Baker died a resident of McCracken county, Kentucky, and that under the law of that state, the mother and the widow were each entitled to one half of the surplus of the personal estate. The corporation was directed to cancel the 270 shares of stock issued to decedent, and reissue one half of these to the widow, the other half to the mother. This judgment has only historical importance, since the Kentucky court of appeals in the present case held it invalid as against the widow because of failure to comply with the local law respecting notice to her.

In June, 1913, the widow, individually and as administratrix of Charles Baker, began a suit in equity in the McCracken county circuit court, which resulted in the judgment now under review. Baker, Eccles, & Company was made defendant. The widow's petition, after setting up the orders and judgments of the Tennessee courts and alleging her sole ownership of the personal estate of the deceased by virtue thereof, prayed that the corporation be required to transfer to her individually the 270 shares of stock adjudged to her by the Tennessee chancery decree, and also prayed judgment for $11,429.17, the alleged indebtedness due from the corporation to her husband at the time of his death. Baker, Eccles, & Company filed an answer putting in issue all the averments of the petition. Mrs. Augusta H. Baker, the mother, came into the suit by an intervening petition, in which she averred that Charles Baker died a resident of the state of Kentucky, and that, under the laws of that state, she was entitled to one half of the shares of stock and of the debt sued for, invoking the McCracken circuit court judgment as an adjudication to that effect. She further put in issue the validity of the orders and judgments in both the Tennessee courts, averring that so far as they determined that Charles Baker died a resident of that state, and that his widow was entitled to the whole of his personalty after payment of his debts, they were void, because neither of the Tennessee courts had jurisdiction to make such orders or judgments. The pleadings having been made up, evidence was taken on the issue of fact as to the domicil of Charles Baker at the time of his death. Upon this evidence, the records of the judicial proceedings above mentioned, and a show- ing of the pertinent Tennessee law, the case was submitted for hearing, and it was adjudged that the widow's petition be dismissed. The widow appealed to the Kentucky court of appeals, and that court, having determined the judgment of the McCracken circuit court in the mother's administration suit to be invalid as against the widow, held that the judgments of both Tennessee courts were invalid as against the mother because entered without process of law as against her; and then, passing upon the question of fact as to the domicil of Charles Baker, found upon the evidence that he was domiciled in the state of Kentucky and his personalty was distributable according to the laws of that state, and affirmed the judgment, with a modification directing the lower court to enter a judgment that Charles Baker died a resident of Kentucky, that his mother and his widow were each entitled to one half of his personal estate situate in Kentucky at the time of his death, after the payment of his debts, that Baker, Eccles, & Company should cancel all certificates of stock issued to Charles Baker, and reissue one half of these to the widow and the other half to the mother, and that the lower court embody in the judgment such other matters as would, after the payment of debts, distribute equally between the widow and the mother all other personal estate situate in Kentucky of which Charles Baker died possessed. 162 Ky. 683, L.R.A. 1917C, 171, 173 S. W. 109. To review this judgment upon the Federal question, the widow brings the case here upon writ of error.

No question is made by defendants in error but that the Tennessee courts had general jurisdiction over the subject matter, nor that the proceedings were in conformity with the Tennessee statutes respecting practice. The sole question is whether they were entitled, under the Constitution of the United States and the act of Congress, to recognition in the courts of Kentucky as adjudicating adversely the mother's asserted right to share as distributee in the personal property situate in Kentucky, or as conclusively determining the fact of the domicil of the...

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