United States v. Knutzen

The United States, as successor in interest of alien heirs, has appealed from a decree settling a final account and ordering distribution, and from an order denying a motion for a new trial and a motion to vacate the decree. The problems presented concern the inheritance rights of nonresident aliens under sections 259, 259.1 and 259.2 of the Probate Code.

Section 259, as enacted in 1941, provided that the right of nonresident aliens to take real or personal property or the proceeds thereof by succession or testamentary disposition “is dependent in each case upon the existence of a reciprocal…