Rella F. Fennell, Administratrix of the Estate of Donald M. Fennell, Deceased v. Monongahela Power Company, a Corporation

Diversity jurisdiction was disavowed by the United States District Court in West Virginia in the plaintiff’s suit for the wrongful death there of a Pennsylvania citizen caused by a West Virginia corporation. The plaintiff, a citizen of Pennsylvania, had been appointed in that State, and she sued presently, as the ad-ministratrix of the intestate decedent. The ruling first recognized that the West Virginia statute vested such a cause of action in the decedent’s personal representative but then applied a collateral statute denying a foreign administrator the right to “act” within the State.…