Ferry v. Spokane, P. & S. R. Co., 258 U.S. 314 (1922)
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
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. 117 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.