Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/371/30/
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 14:18:06+00:00

Document:
Reported below: 11 N.Y.2d 740, 181 N.E.2d 456.
I think this appeal presents substantial federal questions, and that jurisdiction should be noted.
Under § 269 of the New York Surrogate's Court Act (now § 269-a) a Czechoslovakian beneficiary of a New York estate has been denied the power to make a gift of her interest in the estate to her niece residing in England. This result flows from a determination by the Surrogate's Court of Bronx County that, under its present government, conditions are such in Czechoslovakia that it is unlikely the beneficiary would be able to enjoy her interest. Therefore its use was denied her entirely, though none of it, so far as this record shows, will ever reach Czechoslovakia.
of property in one state to the citizens of another state is clearly a proper subject of international relations. See Geofroy v. Riggs, 133 U. S. 258. The Constitution by Art. I, § 10, imposes severe limitations on the several States' power to affect the foreign relations of the United States.
"[C]omplete power over international affairs is in the national government, and is not and cannot be subject to any curtailment or interference on the part of the several states."
"[i]f state action could defeat or alter our foreign policy, serious consequences might ensue. The nation as a whole would be held to answer if a State created difficulties with a foreign power."
United States v. Pink, 315 U. S. 203, 315 U. S. 232. Cf. 25 U. S. Maryland, 12 Wheat. 419.
immunity should be allowed, those views will control. Republic of Mexico v. Hoffman, 324 U. S. 30.
"Experience has shown that international controversies of the gravest moment, sometimes even leading to war, may arise from real or imagined wrongs to another's subjects inflicted, or permitted, by a government."
Certainly a State could not deny admission to a traveler from Czechoslovakia, nor bar its citizens from going there. The Passenger Cases, 7 How. 283; Crandall v. Nevada, 6 Wall. 35; cf. Kent v. Dulles, 357 U. S. 116. The present restraints are not as gross an intrusion in the federal domain as those others would be. Yet they affect international relations in a persistent and subtle way. The practice of state courts in withholding remittances to legatees residing in Communist countries or in preventing them from assigning them is notorious. Chaitkin, The Rights of Residents of Russia and its Satellites to Share in Estates of American Decedents, 25 So.Calif.L.Rev. 297.
The issue is of importance to our foreign relations, and I think this Court should decide whether, under existing federal policy and practice, the New York statute should be given effect. The issue was raised in No. 123, 1953 Term, where the appeal was dismissed. Matter of Braier, 305 N.Y. 148, 111 N.E.2d 424, app. dism. sub nom.
Kalmane v. Green, 346 U.S. 802, JUSTICES BLACK, DOUGLAS, and BURTON voting to note jurisdiction. The question seems substantial, and does not seem to be foreclosed by Clark v. Allen, 331 U. S. 503. We should note jurisdiction and ask the Solicitor General to file a brief.
"Had the Surrogate held a hearing, it might well have been developed, as alleged in the petition, that the beneficiaries are 'all of advanced age, who are [now] living [in Hungary] under difficult conditions and are in great need of assistance,' and that monetary assistance 'can be transferred to them by sending food and clothing packages to each of them . . . free of duty and of any taxation.' It might well have been further developed that these nationals have no way of leaving Hungary; that they are the very victims of the 'events in Hungary' to which the Surrogate referred; that they will probably die there and never receive the benefit of their legacies if the moneys are withheld; and that there are agencies which can assure delivery of food and clothing packages in reasonable amounts to named individuals."
packages upon a proper showing that they would reach the beneficiaries."
7 N.Y.2d at 113-114, 164 N.E.2d at 101, 102.
This means that no one residing in Czechoslovakia may receive or make any disposition of property under a will probated in New York, even though it is done without the intercession of the foreign government or in fact without its knowledge, and even though there is no danger of the funds' being confiscated or, in fact, being within Czechoslovakia's reach. If New York's purpose is to preclude unfriendly foreign governments from obtaining funds that will assist their efforts hostile to this Nation's interests, as Matter of Getream, 200 Misc. 543, 107 N.Y.S.2d 225, and In re Renard's Estate, 179 Misc. 885, 39 N.Y.S.2d 968, suggest, the complete prohibition of assignments made in those countries may have some basis in reason. But, if this is the purpose behind the statute, it seemingly is an attempt to regulate foreign affairs. If the statute is designed to effectuate the testator's intent, as appellees seem to argue, it would seem to have no basis in reason.
Viktoria Miculka, who was a distributee of an estate of a New York decedent, assigned at the American Embassy in Prague her interest in the estate to petitioner, her niece who lives in London. There is no connection between the fund in New York and Czechoslovakia because of the fact that Viktoria Miculka resides in Czechoslovakia. There is no evidence whatsoever that any of the funds will ever reach Czechoslovakia. Viktoria Miculka is an old woman who will probably never leave her homeland. An irrebuttable presumption that the testator would not have wanted his beneficiary to make a voluntary assignment of his interest under these circumstances flies in the face of reason or common sense, and is as questionable as the one sought to be sustained in Tot v. United States, 319 U. S. 463.

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