delivered the opinion of the Court.
The question is whether a district court of the United States has jurisdiction of a suit brought by the Alien Property Custodian against an executor and resident heirs *492 to determine the Custodian’s asserted right to share in decedent’s estate which is in course of probate administration in a state court.
On January 23, 1943, petitioner, the Alien Property Custodian, acting under § 5 (b) (1) (B) of the Trading with the Enemy Act, 55 Stat. 839, 50 U. S. C. App., Supp. IV, § 616, and Executive Order No. 9095, as amended by Executive Order 9193, 3 Code Fed. Reg. (Cum. Supp.) 1174, issued vesting order Nо. 762, by which he purported to vest in himself as Custodian all right, title and interest of German legatees in the estate of Alvina Wagner, who died testate, a resident of California, whose will was admitted to probate and whose estate is being administered in the Superior Court of California. Previously, on December 30, 1942, six of the other heirs-at-law of decedent, residing in the United States, filed a petition in the Superior Court of California for determination of heirship, asserting that under the provisions of California Statutes, 1941, chap. 895, § 1, * the German legatees were ineligible as beneficiaries, and that the American heirs were therefore entitlеd to inherit decedent’s estate. This proceeding is still pending.
On April 6,1943, the Custodian brought the present suit in the district court for the northern district of California against the executor and the six California claimants, seeking a judgment determining that the resident claimants have no interest in the estate, and that the Custodian, by virtue of his vesting оrder, is entitled to the entire net estate of the decedent after payment of expenses of administration, debts, and taxes, and is the owner of spеcified real estate of decedent passing under the will. The complaint prayed that the executor be ordered to pay the entire net еstate to the Custodian upon the allowance by *493 the state court of the executor’s final account. On motion of respondents to strike the cоmplaint, and on petitioner’s motion for judgment on the pleadings, the district court gave judgment for petitioner, 52 E. Supp. 850. The court held that it had jurisdiction to enforce the vesting order of petitioner; that its jurisdiction is derived from the Constitution and laws of the United States and is not subject to restriction or ouster by state legislаtion; and that California Statutes, 1941, chap. 895, § 1, is invalid. The judgment declared that petitioner had acquired the interests of the German nationals in the estate of decedent; that none of respondents have any right, title or interest in the estate; and that petitioner is entitled to receive the net estate in distribution after payment of expenses of administration, debts and taxes.
Without passing upon the merits, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed and orderеd the cause dismissed, upon the ground that the district court was without jurisdiction of the subject matter of the action.
It is not denied that the present suit is a suit “of a civil nature ... in equity,” brought by an officer of the United States, authorized to sue, of which district courts are given jurisdiction by § 24 (1), 28 U. S. C. § 41 (1), of the Judicial Code. But respondents argue, as the Circuit Court of Appeals held, that as the district courts of the United States are without jurisdiction over probatе matters, see
Broderick’s Will,
*494
It is truе that a federal court has no jurisdiction to probate a will or administer an estate, the reason being that the equity jurisdiction conferred by the Judiciary Act of 1789 and § 24 (1) of the Judicial Code, which is that of the English Court of Chancery in 1789, did not extend to probate matters.
Kerrich
v.
Bransby,
7 Brown P. C. 437;
Barnesley
v.
Powel,
1 Ves. Sen. 284;
Allen
v.
Macpherson,
Similarly while a federal court may not exercise its jurisdiction tо disturb or affect the possession of property in the custody of a state court,
Penn Co.
v.
Pennsylvania,
*495 Although in this case petitioner sought a judgment in the district court ordering defendant executor tо pay over the entire net estate to the petitioner upon an allowance of the executor’s final account, the judgment declarеd only that petitioner “is entitled to receive the net estate of the late Alvina Wagner in distribution, after the payment of expenses of administration, debts, and taxes.” The effect of the judgment was to leave undisturbed the orderly administration of decedent’s estate in the state probate court and to dеcree petitioner’s right in the property to be distributed after its administration. This, as our authorities demonstrate, is not an exercise of probate jurisdiction or an interference with property in the possession or custody of a state court.
There remains the question whether the district court having jurisdiction should, in the exercise of its discretion, have declined to entertain the suit which involves issues of state law and have remitted the petitioner to his remedy in the state probate proceeding. See
Thompson
v.
Magnolia Co.,
The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded to the Circuit Court of Appeals for further proceedings in conformity tо this opinion.
Reversed.
Notes
This statute purports to limit inheritance by non-resident aliens to nationals of countries which grant reciprocal rights of inheritance to American citizens.