Case Name: Lydia Weaver & others v. Daniel Chace
Court: Supreme Court of Rhode Island
Jurisdiction: Rhode Island
Decision Date: 1858-09
Citations: 5 R.I. 356
Docket Number: 
Parties: Lydia Weaver & others v. Daniel Chace.
Judges: 
Reporter: Rhode Island Reports
Volume: 5
Pages: 356–357

Head Matter:
Lydia Weaver & others v. Daniel Chace.
A husband, though not resident within the state, is entitled to the administration of his deceased wife’s estate.
Appeal from a decree of the court of probate of Warren, appointing Daniel Chace, of Somerset, Massachusetts, administrator on the estate of his wife, Susan B. Chace, late of said Warren, deceased. Tfie appointment was made some nine years after the death of the wife, and after the applicant had married again, upon the vesting in possession of certain personal estate, by the death of a life tenant, which had vested in interest in the first wife of the applicant during his marriage with her.
Cu/rrey and R. W. Greene, for the appellants.
Wm. H. Potter, for the appellee.

Opinion:
Ames, C. J.
This decree must be affirmed. We can conceive of no stronger case for the appointment of a non-resident administrator, within the discretion given to the court by ch. 156, § 6, of the Rev. Stats., than that of a husband, entitled, by section 7 of the same chapter, to administer on his wife's estate, in case of her intestacy, and without account. There are no debts — there is to be no distribution — and he is to retain as his own the whole personal estate of his deceased wife ; and if, as has been suggested, questions are likely to arise as to what was her personal estate, he is the most proper person, in his own name, to vindicate his own rights.