In re Estate of Baubichon

California Supreme Court Jul 1, 1874 No. No. 4,371Published

Before: McKinstry

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Holding. The court held that the decedent's estate should be distributed according to California law rather than French law, as the contestants' claims against the decedent's will were not supported by the ante-nuptial contract or applicable foreign law.

Issues

Whether the ante-nuptial contract entitled the children of the marriage to two-thirds of the estate as forced heirs under French law.
Whether a California court should distribute the estate according to French law rather than California statutes.

Disposition. affirmed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“This is merely to ask that we should order the estate to be distributed, not in accordance with our own, but in accordance with the foreign law.”

“It was expressly admitted, and we think correctly admitted, that we are only authorized to direct distribution, in the absence of an ante-nuptial contract, in the manner required by the statutes of our State.”

Synopsis

Construction of Ante-nuptiai Contract.—If, in an ante-nuptial contract, there are several articles, and if, in construing the same, to attach a clause of one article to another article would make the article to which it is attached contradictory, such clause will be held applicable only to the article in'which it is found.

'Inheritance Under Ante-nuptiah Contract.—If, in an ante-nuptial contract, made in France, each of the future spouses gives or conveys to the survivor of them all the property which the first one dying shall leave, except what the law gives to the children of the marriage, the children take, not under the contract, but under the law, and if the survivor of the spouses dies in this State, leaving property here, the same will be distributed by the Probate Court in accordance with the statutes of this State.

Distribution of Estate by Probate Court.—In the absence of an ante-nuptial contract, property in this State left by a foreigner, dying in this State, and leaving children, must be distributed in accordance with the statutes of this State.

By the Court, McKinstry, J.: The deceased and Marguerite Dutrech were married at Bordeaux, France, in the year 1838.

In view of the marriage they entered into a contract, which contained the following covenants:

“Article 1. The future spouses declare that they renounce both the dotal regime and the legal community.

“Art. 2. In consideration of the said marriage Mrs. widow Dutrech gives to Miss, the future spouse, the moveables hereinafter designated: a complete bedstead made of walnut, a paillasse, a mattress, a feather-bed, two blankets, with a wreath trimming of white cotton, a clothes-press, and a commode of walnut wood, the whole valued at three hundred francs. Mrs. widow Dutrech obligates herself to deliver these objects to the future spouses as soon as they will prefer not living with the said Mrs. Dutrech, it being understood that the value given the furniture shall not remove .the ownership from the future wife.

“Art. 3. There shall be between the future spouses 'a community of acquisitions which shall be regulated by articles one thousand four hundred and ninety-eight and one thousand four hundred and ninety-nine of the Civil Code. This community is further agreed upon the express condition that the whole of the said acquisitions shall belong to the survivor of the future spouses in fee and usufruct, whether there be any children of the said marriage or not, and this not as a gift, but according to agreement as between partners.

“Art. 4. The future spouses reciprocally make donation in favor of the survivor of them of the universality of the [26]goods and rights of the nature of separate property, which the first one dying shall leave, except the reductions prescribed by law in case of descendants or ascendants surviving the first deceased spouse.”

Jean and Marie Baubichon (afterward Marie Beyselance), the issue of said marriage, were born at Bordeaux in the years 1840 and 1842, respectively; in 1870-—-and prior to the death of Jean Baptiste, the deceased—the wife, Marguerite, departed this life.

The deceased died in San Francisco, whither he removed, his family remaining in France, prior to the death of his wife, leaving a last will and testament in words and figures following:

“In the name of God, amen! I, Jean Baptiste Baubichon, of the city and county of San Francisco, being of sound and disposing mind and memory, and desirous of settling my worldly affairs while I have strength and capacity so to do:

In re Estate of Baubichon

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