Clark, Attorney General, As Successor to the Alien Property Custodian, v. Allen et al. (331 U.S. 503)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 9, 1947 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 331 U.S. 503 · 67 S. Ct. 1431
- Docket
- No. 626
- Argued
- April 11, 1947
- Decided
- June 9, 1947
- Term
- October Term 1946
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Douglas
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Affirmed and reversed (or vacated) in part and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Burton, Justice R. H. Jackson, Justice Douglas (wrote), Justice Frankfurter, Justice Reed, Justice Black, Justice Murphy
- Concurring in the judgment
- Justice Rutledge (wrote)
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Douglas delivered the opinion of the Court. Alvina Wagner, a resident of California, died in 1942, leaving real and personal property situate there. By a will dated December 23, 1941, and admitted to probate in a California court in 1942, she bequeathed her entire estate to four relatives who are nationals and residents of Germany. Six heirs-at-law, residents of California, filed a petition for determination of heirship in the probate proceedings claiming that the German nationals were ineligible as legatees under California law. There has never been a hearing on that petition. For in 1943 the Alien Property Custodian, to whose functions the Attorney General has recently succeeded, vested in himself all right, title and interest of the German nationals in the estate of this decedent. He thereupon instituted this action in the District Court against the executor under the will and the California heirs-at-law for a determination that they had no interest in the estate and that he was entitled to the entire net estate, after payment of administration and other expenses. The District Court granted judgment for the Custodian on the pleadings. 52 F. Supp. 850. The Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, holding that the District Court was without jurisdiction of the subject matter. 147 F. 2d 136. The case came here on certiorari. We held that the District Court had…
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