Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/114/218/
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 08:16:06+00:00

Document:
A guardian, appointed in a state which is not the domicil of the ward, should not, in accounting in the his appointment for his investment of the ward's property, be held, unless in obedience to express statute, to a narrower range of securities than is allowed by the law of the ward's domicil.
Infants having a domicil in one state who, after the death of both their parents, take up their residence at the home of their paternal grandmother and next of kin in another state acquire her domicil.
The courts of the United States take judicial notice of the law of any the Union, whether depending on statutes or on judicial opinions.
Lamar v. Micou, 112 U. S. 452, confirmed.
This was a petition for a rehearing of Lamar v. Micou, decided at this term and reported 112 U. S. 452.
This is a petition for a rehearing of an appeal from a decree of the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York, upon a bill filed against the executor of a guardian by the administratrix of his ward.
William W. Sims, the ward's father, died at Savannah, in the State of Georgia, in 1850, leaving two infant daughters and a widow who in 1853 married a citizen of New York, and thenceforth resided with him in that state until 1856, when they removed to Connecticut and resided there until her death in 1859. The two infants lived with their mother and stepfather in New York (where Lamar was appointed in 1855 guardian of both infants) and in Connecticut from her second marriage until her death, and then went to Georgia, and thenceforth resided with their father's mother and her daughter and only living child, their aunt at first in Georgia and afterwards in Alabama.
the death of their mother in 1859, and was thereafter in Georgia or Alabama; that whether the guardian's domicile was in Georgia or in New York, he should not, in accounting for his investments, be held to a narrower range of securities than was allowed by the law of the ward's domicile, and that many of his investments were justified by the law of Georgia or of Alabama, and therefore reversed the decree of the circuit court, which had held him to account according to the law of New York for the manner in which he had invested the property. 112 U.S. 112 U. S. 452.
The questions so passed upon, though hardly touched by either counsel at the first argument, arose upon the facts admitted, were vital to the determination of the rights of the parties, and could not be overlooked by this Court. The importance and comparative novelty of some of the questions induced the court to invite the submission of a full brief in support of the petition for a rehearing. But upon careful consideration of the petition and brief, the court has seen no ground for changing its opinion, and has not thought it necessary to add anything beyond what has been suggested by examination of the authorities cited for the petitioner.
S. 100; The Gaetano & Maria, L.R. 7 P.D. 137.
"disputes arise not as to the terms of the contract, but as to their application to unforeseen questions which arise incidentally or accidentally in the course of performance and which the contract does not answer in terms, yet which are within the sphere of the relation established thereby, . . . it is necessary to consider by what general law the parties intended that the transaction should be governed, or rather to what general law it is just to presume that they have submitted themselves in the matter."
6 B. & S. 130; 1 Q.B. 120. And in The Gaetano & Maria, Lord Justice Brett, with whom Lord Coleridge and Lord Justice Cotton concurred, pointed out that the matter before the court was "not the question of the construction of a contract, but of what authority arises out of the fact of a contract's having been entered into." 7 P.D. 147.
The question in what securities a guardian may lawfully invest is not one of mere construction of the contract expressed in the guardian's bond or implied by his acceptance of the guardianship, but rather of what is "within the sphere of the relation established thereby," or "what authority arises out of the fact of a contract having been entered into." And the very terms of Lamar's bond do not point to the law of New York only, but impose a general obligation to "discharge the duty of a guardian to the said minor according to law," as well as to render accounts of the property and of his guardianship to any court having cognizance thereof. See 112 U.S. 112 U. S. 455.
to in the former opinion, and the only decision of a Scotch court brought to our notice tends in the same direction, although the Scotch commentators treat the question as an open one. Bar, International Law, §§ 87, 106 (Gillespie's translation) 357, 359, 438, 445, note; Lamb v. Montgomerie (1858), 20 Scotch Ct. of Sess.Cas. (2d series), 1323; Fraser on Parent & Child 609.
The cases of Preston v. Melville, 8 Cl. & Fin. 1, and Blackwood v. The Queen, L.R. 8 App.Cas. 82, cited for the petitioner, relate only to the place in which personal property of a deceased person is to be administered or is subject to probate duty. The petitioner, while admitting that the statement in the former opinion that domicile of the father was in Georgia was a natural inference from the facts stated in the record, and that it is probable that the wards never acquired a domicile in any northern state, has now offered affidavits tending to show that the father's domicile at the time of his death and for six years before was not in Georgia, but in Florida, and has referred to statutes and decisions in Florida as showing that the law of that state in the matter of investments did not differ from the law of New York. Fla.Stat. Nov. 20, 1828, § 35; Thompson's Digest 207-208; Moore v. Hamilton, 4 Fla. 112 and 7 Fla. 44.
But if, against all precedent, this new evidence could be admitted after argument and decision in this Court, it would afford no ground for arriving at a different conclusion upon the merits of the case.
Darden v. Wyatt, 15 Ga. 414. In the present case, the infants, when their mother died and they went to the home of their paternal grandmother, were under ten years of age; the grandmother, who appears to have been their only surviving grandparent and their next of kin and whose only living child, an unmarried daughter, resided with her, was the head of the family, and upon the facts agreed, it is evident that the removal of the infants after the death of both parents to the home of their grandmother in Georgia was with Lamar's consent. Under these circumstances, there can be no doubt that, by taking up their residence with her, they acquired her domicile in that state in 1859, if their domicile was not already there. And there being no evidence that any of Lamar's investments had diminished in value before that time, it is immaterial whether the previous domicile of the wards was in Florida or in Georgia, inasmuch as the propriety of his investments was thereafter to be governed by the law of Georgia.
The law of any state of the Union, whether depending upon statutes or upon judicial opinions, is a matter of which the courts of the United States are bound to take judicial notice without plea or proof. Owings v. Hull, 9 Pet. 607; Pennington v. Gibson, 16 How. 65; Covington Drawbridge Co. v. Shepherd, 20 How. 227. And nothing has now been adduced tending to show that, as applied to the facts admitted by the parties, either the law of Georgia or the law of New York was other than we have held it to be.
The question whether, as matter of fact, Lamar acted with due care and prudence in making his investments, was argued at the former hearing, and no reason is shown for reopening that question.

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