Victor Eastman Cox v Teresa Valdivieso

• Date: 13 October 1930
• Court: Corte Suprema (Ecuador)
• Docket Number: Case No. 195

Ecuador, Supreme Court of Justice.

(Borja, Roldán, Baquero L., Enríquez A., laramillo, JJ.)

Case No. 195

Victor Eastman Cox

and

Teresa Valdivieso.

Diplomatic Envoys — Privileges and Immunities of — Actions Concerning Property of Wives.

The Facts.—Victor Eastman Cox, the Chilean Minister to Ecuador, brought an action as the legal representative of his wife concerning the boundaries of certain lands she owned in Ecuador. The Organic Law of the Judicial Power provided (Article 14, no. 3) that the President of the Supreme Court had original jurisdiction in the first instance of litigious affairs of Ministers Plenipotentiary. Accordingly, the action was brought before that judge, who fixed the disputed boundary.2 On appeal by the defendant,

Held: that the judgment as to the boundary must be affirmed. The rule giving jurisdiction to the President of the Supreme Court was established in conformity with International Law. The affairs of diplomatic ministers referred to were

“affairs from among which there is no reason to exclude those relating to property of the minister's wife.”

² In sustaining his jurisdiction, the President of the Supreme Court said: “The plaintiff, in appearing in defence of the alleged rights of his wife, does not appear in defence of rights...