Milmoe v. Toomey

A young woman and former Peace Corps worker (deceased) rented a car from Hertz in Washington DC (DC) and listed her DC apartment as her address on the rental agreement. Execution of the rental agreement triggered a liability-insurance policy issued by Royal Indemnity to Hertz. Both Royal Indemnity and Hertz conducted business in DC and were subject to suit there. The young woman set out for her family home in New York in the rental car but never made it. Instead, she and her passenger and a married Illinois couple were all killed when the young woman’s car was in an accident with the Illinois couple’s car in Pennsylvania. A minor child who was with the Illinois couple was seriously injured in the accident. Reciting the young woman’s car rental agreement with Hertz, the administrator for the deceased Illinois couple filed a petition in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and asked that letters of administration issue to an ancillary DC administrator so that the Illinois couple’s administrator could bring a suit against the young woman’s estate on behalf of the Illinois couple and their surviving minor child. The court appointed Toomey for this purpose, and the young woman’s father appeared as the administrator to her estate to contest the appointment. The young woman’s father-administrator argued that the young woman had ended any significant relationship she had with DC before her death and that the Illinois couple’s suit could and should instead be brought either in New York or Pennsylvania, where all potential parties were subject to jurisdiction. A suit had in fact been filed in Pennsylvania and another in DC promptly after the appointment of the ancillary DC administrator. The district court found that the young woman’s interest in the insurance company was a personal estate and that its locus was in DC. The young woman’s father-administrator appealed.