United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Ferry v. Spokane, P. & S. R. Co., 258 U.S. 314 (1922)

Ferry v. Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railroad Company

No. 177

Argued March 20, 1922

Decided April 10, 1922

258 U.S. 314

Syllabus

1. Dower is not a privilege or immunity of citizenship, state or federal, within the meaning of § 2 of Article IV of the Constitution or the Fourteenth Amendment, but, at most, a right attached to the marital relation and subject to regulation by each state respecting property within its limits. P. 258 U. S. 318.

2. The Oregon law allowing a dower right in the lands of which the husband was seized of an estate of inheritance at any time during

Page 258 U. S. 315

the marriage, but restricting this when the wife, at the time of his death, is a nonresident of the state, to the lands of which the husband died seized, does not deprive the nonresident widow of property without due process of law or deny her the equal protection of the laws in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. P. 258 U. S. 318.

268 F.1d 7 affirmed.

Appeal from a decree of the circuit court of appeals affirming a decree of the district court which dismissed a bill by which the appellant asserted a dower right in land possessed by the appellee railway company.

Page 258 U. S. 317