United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Dixon's Executors v. Ramsay's Executors, 7 U.S. 3 Cranch 319 319 (1806)

Dixon's Executors v. Ramsay's Executors

7 U.S. (3 Cranch) 319

Syllabus

An executor cannot maintain a suit in the District of Columbia upon letters testamentary granted in a foreign country.

All rights to the testator's personal property are to be regulated by the laws of the country where he lived, but suits for those rights must be governed by the laws of that country in which the tribunal is placed.

Error to the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia upon a judgment in favor of the defendants upon a general demurrer to their plea, which (after oyer of the plaintiff's letters testamentary) stated that the defendants' testator, at the time of making the promises, &c., and from thence always until his death, resided in the Town of Alexandria, in the County of Alexandria, in the District of Columbia, and that the defendants have always resided in the same town, and that the plaintiffs have not obtained probate of the said

Page 7 U. S. 320

letters testamentary, at any place within the District of Columbia, or the United States of America.

Page 7 U. S. 323