266 Pa. 189 | Pa. | 1920
Opinion by
Bessie Denny Gregg, a resident of Pittsburgh, this State, died there March 22, 1918. By her will dated August 25, 1913, she thus disposed of her estate: “I direct that all my estate, real, personal and mixed, of every nature and kind whatsoever, shall be divided into three parts, one part to go to my daughter, Elizabeth Denny Gregg, one part to my daughter, Martha Mc-Murtie Gregg Haller, and the third part to be held in trust for my daughter, Ellen McKnight Gregg Ker, for and during the term of her natural life, and after her decease, to be held in trust for her child or children until they shall all arrive at the age of twenty-one years, when the said share is to be divided equally between them. Or if all her children should die before reaching the age of twenty-one years and without issue, then the said share so held in trust shall be divided equally between my two other daughters.” By an undated memorandum, in the nature of a codicil, she distributed certain articles of jewelry among her three daughters. At the time of her death war had been declared between the government of the United States and the German Empire, and
The term “enemy” is thus defined by section 2 (a) of the Trading with the Enemy Act: “Any individual, partnership, or other body of individuals, of any nationality,
Section 3 of the act under consideration provides “That it shall be unlawful — (a) For any person in the United States, except with the license of the President, granted to such person, or to the enemy, or ally of enemy, as provided in this act, to trade, or attempt to trade, either directly or indirectly, with, to, or from, or for, or on account of, or on behalf of, or for the benefit of, any other person, with knowledge or reasonable cause to believe that such other person is an enemy or ally of enemy, or is conducting or taking part in such trade, directly or indirectly, for, or on account of, or on behalf of, or for the benefit of, an enemy or ally of enemy.” The words “to trade” are declared by section 2 of the act to mean, inter alia, “(d) Buy or sell, loan or extend credit, trade in, deal with, exchange, transmit, transfer, assign, or otherwise dispose of, or receive any form of property.” It is under this clause that the appellants contend that the bequest and devise to Mrs. Haller are void. Section 7, subsection (c), as amended November 4,1918, provides: “If the President shall so require, any money or other property......owing or belonging to or held for, by, on account of, or on behalf of, or for the benefit of, an enemy or ally of enemy not holding a license granted by the President hereunder, which the President after investigation shall determine is so owing or so belongs or so held, shall be conveyed, trans
The Trading with the Enemy Act is not for confiscation of property. It is rather for its conservation. While, if the President so directs, the money or property of an alien enemy may be taken by the government for its own purposes, the owner does not part absolutely with it, for after the end of the war his claim to it “shall be settled as Congress shall direct”; but the construction which the appellants would have us give to the act would make it confiscatory for the benefit of private in
The money claimed by the alien property custodian is held by the executors of the testatrix for Mrs. Haller, and, but for the claim made by him, it would be paid by them to her in accordance with the direction of her mother’s will. The act of Congress does not declare such direction to be void, but, assuming that it may have been an unlawful testamentary disposition under the clause defining the meaning of the words “to trade,” and under which the appellants claim the money, as to whom are the bequest and devise unlawful? Nothing is to be found in the act of Congress declaring the testatrix’s disposition of one-third of her estate to her daughter Martha void, and if it is unlawful, it is so only as to the government of the United States, and then only after the President has so determined. By his license he might permit Mrs. Haller to receive the money.
The question before us arises under a federal statute, and that the appellants have no standing as claimants to the share of Mrs. Haller in their mother’s estate is to be regarded as settled by the highest federal judicial authority. An act of Congress passed July 17, 1862, was entitled “An act to suppress insurrection, to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and confiscate the property of rebels and for other purposes.” The sixth section provided that if any person within any state or territory of the United States, being engaged in armed rebellion against the United States, or aiding or abetting such rebellion, should not, within sixty days after public warning and proclamation duly given and made by the President of the United States, cease to aid, countenance and
The assignments of error are all overruled and the decree is affirmed at the costs of the appellants.