Personal
Estate.
Domicile.

Administra-
tion.

THE persons named as trustees and executors in the will of a 1st APPEAL. domiciled Scotchman having declined to act, his next of kin obtained letters of administration of his personal estate in England from the proper Ecclesiastical Court there, and afterwards consented to the appointment, by the Court of Session in Scotland, of other persons as trustees and executors in place of those named in the will, with all the powers that had been thereby Jurisdiction. given to them. These trustees so appointed raised an action in the Court of Session against the administratrix, calling on her to transfer to them the personal estate possessed by her under the administration, and offering her a full release from liability.— HELD by the Lords (reversing the decree of the Court of Session), that the personal estate in England must be administered there by the administratrix, by virtue of the letters of administration. The law of the domicile of a deceased person governs the succession to his personal estate, wherever situated; but the estate itself must be administered in the country in which possession is taken of it under lawful authority.

The Courts in Scotland have no power to appoint persons to administer personal property in England, that power being exclusively vested in the English Ecclesiastical Courts; and of that the Scotch Courts are bound to take notice.

SIR ROBERT PRESTON, Baronet, a domiciled
Scotchman, died at his place of residence in Scot-

1840.

PRESTON

บ.

VISCOUNT

1st APPEAL.

land, in May 1834, leaving a trust disposition, deed of settlement and will, by which he granted, disponed and made over to and in favour of Sir Coutts MELVILLE. Trotter, Baronet, Edward Marjoribanks, Esq., and Sir Edmund Antrobus, Baronet, bankers in London, and to the survivors and survivor of them and their assigns, and the assigns of the survivor, in trust for the uses, ends and purposes therein particularly declared, all his lands, heritages, tiends, fishings, tenements, and other heritable or real estate of whatever description; and all property and estate whatsoever or of whatever denomination, then belonging, or that might belong to him at the time of his death, wherever situated, in Scotland, England, or elsewhere; and also all debts and sums of money due or belonging to him at his death, heritable or moveable, real or personal, wherever and in what. ever way secured; and also all personal estate and effects of whatever nature, quality or denomination, with the title deeds of the heritable subjects and the vouchers of the debts: surrogating and by the trust disposition, &c. substituting the said trustees in his full right and place of the premises, with power to them to do whatever he could have done before granting thereof, and binding himself and his heirs to make up complete titles to the lands, heritages and heritable debts thereby disponed, if necessary, and to convey the same in all form to the said trustees, for the purposes therein mentioned: and he appointed the said Sir Coutts Trotter, E. Marjoribanks, and Sir E. Antrobus, and the survivors and survivor of them, to be sole and only executors or executor of his said will, and intromitters and intromitter with his estate and effects falling under executry, thereby empowering them to expede confirmations and letters of

1840.

PRESTON

υ.

VISCOUNT

1st APPEAL.

administration in due form, secluding from the said office all others his nearest of kin; declaring that if an inventory of the debts due, and personal estate belonging to him, should be made up and signed by MELVILLE. him as relative thereto, the same should supersede confirmation in Scotland, or administration in England, being thus to be held as a special conveyance, and to be valid to every intent and purpose; but always under the conditions, and for the ends, uses, trusts and purposes therein underwritten.

The trust deed contained various directions to the trustees and executors relative to the management and disposition of Sir Robert's large heritable estates, and personal property. The former were situated in Scotland; the personal property, which also was of large amount, was partly vested in Scotland, and partly in England in Government securities and Bank of England stock. The immediate objects of the trust were his three nieces: viz., the Appellant; her sister, Miss Catherine Preston; and Dame Anne Hay, wife of Sir John Hay, Baronet: to whom the trustees were to pay annually, in equal shares, the surplus yearly rents and proceeds of the whole property (after payment of debts and certain legacies and annuities), with benefit of survivorship between them; and Sir John Hay was to be entitled to the interest of his wife, in the event of his surviving her.

All the persons named in the deed as trustees and executors having declined to accept the trust, letters of administration with the deed and will annexed were, on the 18th of July 1834, granted by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, as to the personal property in England, to the Appellant, as one of the next of kin of the testator, the other two nieces and next of kin, and Sir John Hay, consenting, and becoming