An executor cannot maintain a suit in the District of Columbia
upon letters testamentary granted in a foreign country.
All rights to the testator's personal property are to be
regulated by the laws of the country where he lived, but suits for
those rights must be governed by the laws of that country in which
the tribunal is placed.
Error to the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia upon a
judgment in favor of the defendants upon a general demurrer to
their plea, which (after oyer of the plaintiff's letters
testamentary) stated that the defendants' testator, at the time of
making the promises, &c., and from thence always until his
death, resided in the Town of Alexandria, in the County of
Alexandria, in the District of Columbia, and that the defendants
have always resided in the same town, and that the plaintiffs have
not obtained probate of the said
Page 7 U. S. 320
letters testamentary, at any place within the District of
Columbia, or the United States of America.
Page 7 U. S. 323
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL delivered the opinion of the
Court.
The question in this case is whether the executor of a person
who dies in a foreign country can maintain an action in this by
virtue of letters testamentary granted to him in his own
country.
It is contended that this case differs from that of an
administrator which was formerly decided in this Court because an
administrator derives his power over the estate of his intestate,
from the grant of the administration, but an executor derives it
from the will of his testator, which has invested him with his
whole personal estate, wherever it may be.
This distinction does certainly exist, but the consequences
deduced from it do not seem to follow. If an executor derived from
the will of his testator, a power to maintain a suit, and obtain a
judgment for a debt due to his testator, it would seem reasonable
that he should exercise that power, wherever the authority of the
will was acknowledged, but if he maintains the
Page 7 U. S. 324
suit by virtue of his letters testamentary, he can only sue in
courts to which the power of those letters extends. It is not and
cannot be denied that he sues by virtue of his letters
testamentary, and consequently in this particular he comes within
the principle which was decided by the court in the case of an
administrator.
All rights to personal property are admitted to be regulated by
the laws of the country in which the testator lived, but the suits
for those rights must be governed by the laws of that country in
which the tribunal is placed. No man can sue in the courts of any
country, whatever his rights may be, unless in conformity with the
rules prescribed by the laws of that country.
The Court can perceive the inconvenience which may often result
from this principle, but it is an inconvenience for which no remedy
is within the reach of this tribunal.
Judgment affirmed.