Opinion ID: 1547949
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Constitutionality of Sections 259, 259.1 and 259.2, Cal. Probate Code, supra.

Text: The appellee claims that the provisions of the Probate Code of California, §§ 259, 259.1 and 259.2, dealing with reciprocal rights of nonresident aliens to land and personal property by inheritance or succession are void and unconstitutional because the California statutes apply in the domain of foreign affairs which is the exclusive prerogative of the Federal Government, and fully occupied by it. The federal power invoked by the appellee is predicated upon the provisions of the Constitution vesting the treaty making power and war power, including the right of capture, in the Federal Government (Constitution, Article I, § 8, Clause 11), and the provisions of the Constitution which prohibit states from entering into treaties with other powers. Constitution, United States, Article I, § 10, Clause 1. It is claimed by the appellee that the power of the Federal Government to deal effectively with the rights of enemy aliens is interfered with and frustrated by the statute of California above cited. However, it is clear that the state has power to regulate the right of inheritance and succession and testamentary disposition of property within the state, Irving Trust Company v. Day, 314 U.S. 556, 562, 62 S.Ct. 398, 86 L. Ed. 452, 137 A.L.R. 1093. The appellants claim that the power of the state government to make the right of nonresident aliens to succeed to property of the deceased depend on a reciprocal right on behalf of American citizens is a clear exercise of the right of the state to determine questions of inheritance, testamentary disposition and succession. Assuming for the time, although this point is disputed, [6] , [7] that the Treaty of 1925, Article IV grants the reciprocal rights required by the provision of the California Probate Code under consideration, the requirement of reciprocity by the statute is only of importance if Article IV of the treaty is abrogated or suspended so that there is no longer any treaty provision to meet the condition of the California Probate Code requiring such reciprocity. In that case the California statute, if valid, would deny rights of inheritance to the German nonresident aliens. It is to meet this situation that the appellee claims that the state statute is void because it violates the Constitution of the United States. The appellee argues that the War Powers granted to the United States by the Constitution include by express provision (U.S. Constitution, Article I, Clause 10) the right to capture enemy property and that a state law which prevents or interferes with such capture is an interference with the power and is consequently void. The difficulty with this contention in the case at bar is the claim that the enemy alien has no right to the property. If the California statute is valid, it is not enemy property. The argument that the state should treat alien enemies more generously in order that the United States might seize their property and use it for its own purposes seems hardly valid as applied to constitutional power. The California statute does not apply to enemies only, but applies as well to any nonresident aliens, friends and allies as well as foes. Recent decision of the Supreme Court, Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214, 217, 65 S.Ct. 193, 89 L.Ed. 194; Kiyoshi Hirabayashi v. United States, 320 U.S. 81, 89, 63 S.Ct. 1375, 87 L.Ed. 1774, concerning the war powers of the Federal Government show that the war power affects almost every field of private right on the basis of necessity. If this great reservoir of Federal power is ipso facto a denial of any power to the States in that reservoir, whether or not a war is being waged or such powers are being exercised, then the power of states is thrown into the utmost uncertainty and confusion. It should be said in addition that the appellee relies upon a so-called emergency clause of the California Probate Code (California Statutes 1941, Chapter 895, quoted in footnote 5) to show that the purpose of the California legislature was to prevent the export of money to foreign powers, which were seizing and diverting if not appropriating the property of citizens of California. It is said that this makes the California statute one of retribution and confiscation and thus within the domain of federal power over foreign affairs. The statute does not purport to be retributive and the addition of the emergency clause does not make it so. This emergency clause is required by the state constitution where a law is to take effect immediately rather than in 90 days, as would otherwise be the case. The motive of the legislature is not subject to judicial scrutiny, so long as the legislature acts within its constitutional authority. Amy v. Watertown, 130 U.S. 301, 319, 9 S.Ct. 530, 32 L.Ed. 946. We conclude that the California statute is constitutional and valid. Assuming as we have decided, that the statute of California in making the right of the nonresident German legatees and devisees depend upon a reciprocal right, we have need to consider whether or not the Treaty of 1925 with Germany providing for reciprocity meets the requirements of the California statute. Before considering the exact language of the treaty, the effect of which is a subject of disagreement between the parties, we will consider the claim of the appellants that the treaty (Art. IV supra) in question was either abrogated or suspended during World War II.