63 Ga. 458 | Ga. | 1879
Lead Opinion
This case came on to be tried in the court below on an appeal from the court of ordinary of Chatham county, granting letters of administration on the estate of William Rose, deceased. The applicants for letters of administration were Henry D. Headman (who had been appointed temporary administrator), Charles H. Olmstead and Mary Rose. On the trial of the case, the jury, under the charge of the court, returned the following verdict: “We, thp jury, find that the deceased, William Rose, was a citizen of
It appears from the evidence in the record that William Rose, the deceased intestate, was born in England and came to Savanah in- 1850 or 1851, where- he continued to reside until his death in July, 1878, being generally considered an unmarried man. He left an estate consisting of both real and personal property of nearly the value of $57,000.00. It also appears from the evidence, that the intestate, William Rose, was married in October, 1849, to-Mary Hargrove (now Mary Rose, the party to this suit), they both being British subjectsthat about three months after their marriage Rose left England and came to the United States, never having returned to England since he left there. Mary Rose remained in England, and never saw her husband after 1849, and there was no- correspondence between them after about six months from the time he left her, though she knew where he was. It further appears from-the evidence, that on the 14th of September, 1878, Messrs. Ilartridge & Chisholm filed a caveat in the court of ordinary to Headman’s application for letters, in the name of Mary Rose, she then being in New York, just arrived therefrom-England, and never having been in Georgia ; that she then came to Savannah to reside, and expressed her intention to permanently reside there, and made application for letters of administration in her own name on the estate of 1-ier deceased husband, there being no children.
By the 2492nd section of the Code, none but citizens of the United States residing in the state of Georgia, are qualified to be administrators except as provided in section 2493. Was Mrs. Rose a citizen of the* United States, and was she residing in this state at the time of her appointment as administratrix on the estate of her deceased husband ? By the 2nd section of the act of congress of 1855, it is declared “that any woman who might lawfully be naturalized under the existing laws, married, or who shall be married, to a citizen of the United States, shall be deemed and taken to be a citizen.” When the question was first presented here as to whether Mrs. Rose could claim to be a citizen of the United States under the provisions of that act of congress (having never been in the United States until after the death of her husband), we were all inclined to the opinion that
Let the judgment of the court below be reversed.
Concurrence Opinion
concurring.
I think that the act of congress of 1855 did not have the effect to natuialize Mrs. Rose, living in England apart' from her husband, and never having been in this country at all until after her husband’s death, and yield my judgment only to what seems to be the unanimous opinion of the supreme court of the United States in the case of Kelly vs. Owen, reported in 7th Wallace.