Opinion ID: 1547949
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Amendment to California Law Burden of Proof.

Text: The California statute under consideration (Sections 259, 259.1 and 259.2) provided in § 259.1 that the burden of proving the existence of reciprocal rights dealt with in Section 259 was upon the nonresident alien. This section was amended in 1945 (Chapter 1160, California Laws, § 259, 1945) to provide that It shall be presumed that such reciprocal rights exist and this presumption shall be conclusive unless prior to the hearing on any petition for distribution of all or a portion of such property to an alien heir, devisee or legatee not residing in the United States or its territories a petition is filed by any person interested in the estate requesting the court to find that either one or both of such reciprocal rights does not or do not exist as to the country of which such alien heir, devisee or legatee is resident. Upon the hearing of such petition the burden of establishing the nonexistence of such reciprocal right or rights shall be upon the petitioner.    The amendment was enacted after the decision of this court upon the appeal but before the decision of the Supreme Court on January 7, 1946. It is claimed by the appellee in the brief filed herein after the case was remanded to this court, that the amendment is applicable to the present appeal and requires affirmance. The appellee's claim seems to be that the new law (California Probate Code, § 259, California Statutes 1945) holds the title in suspense until the nonresident alien acts and that during this interval the property tentatively rests in the German devisees and legatees and consequently is subject to seizure as their property before the procedure outlined by the California statute, to ascertain the rights of heirs, legatees and devisees. It may take much time to determine who the heirs are, witness the Blythe case cited in the briefs (In re Estate of Blythe, 110 Cal. 226, 42 P. 641; Blythe v. Hinckley, 180 U.S. 333, 21 S.Ct. 390, 45 L.Ed. 557), wherein the matter was in litigation for over 15 years. Nevertheless, when the will is proved, or the heirs ascertained, their title relates back to the death of the owner  there is no hiatus. Western Pacific Railroad Co. v. Godfrey, 166 Cal. 346, 349, 136 P. 284, Ann.Cas.1915B, 825, and cases cited. The Federal Court takes judicial notice of all treaties, and so does the state court. They do not have to be proved, consequently if the treaty grants reciprocal rights, there is no need of further proof. Whether it has been repealed or abrogated is also a subject of judicial notice. It is conceivable that the foreign nation might without a treaty, and by its own statute grant rights which were in fact fully reciprocal, if this were done by statute, it would have to be proved, and what must be proved to sustain a complaint must be alleged. There is no such allegation here. Reversed and remanded.