In re Estate of Jones
Iowa Supreme Court
192 Iowa 78, 182 N.W. 227 (1921)

- Written by Mary Phelan D'Isa, JD
Facts
Evan Jones, the decedent, was born in Wales. At age 33 and facing bastardy proceedings, Jones immigrated to the United States and was later naturalized in Wapello County, Iowa. In 1915, while widowed, Jones decided to return to Wales to live with his sister. Jones disposed of his property and deposited the proceeds into an Iowa bank and left a note and a mortgage but no will. Jones then set sail from New York on the RMS Lusitania and drowned en route when the ship was sunk by a German submarine. In an Iowa court, Jones’s illegitimate daughter claimed that at the time of Jones’s death, Jones was domiciled in Iowa and that under Iowa law, she was the sole heir and entitled to Jones’s entire estate. Jones’s surviving brothers and sisters claimed that when Jones died, his domicile was Wales and that under the law of Wales, the estate belonged to them. The court denied relief to the illegitimate daughter, and she appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Faville, J.)
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