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or in that character to aid any other person in so administering it, without judicial authorization. His duties are restricted to guarding and collecting the effects, and to transmitting them to the United States, or to aid others in so guarding, collecting and transmitting them, to be disposed of pursuant to the law of the decedent's state-7 Op. Att. Gen. 274. It is, however, generally conceded that a consular officer may intervene by way of observing the proceedings, and that he may be present on the making of the inventory."

In Moore's International Law Digest, Vol. 5, p. 123, a letter of Mr. Hay, Secretary of State, under date of February 3, 1900, is quoted to the effect that the right of a United States consular officer to intervene by way of observing proceedings in relation to the property of deceased Americans leaving no representatives in foreign countries, is not understood to involve any interference with the functions of a public administrator.

In this country the right to administer property left by a foreigner within the jurisdiction of a State is primarily committed to state law. It seems to be so regulated in the State of California, by giving the administration of such property to the public administrator. There is, of course, no Federal law of probate or of the administration of estates, and, assuming for this purpose that it is within the power of the National Government to provide by treaty for the administration of property of foreigners dying within the jurisdiction of the States, and to commit such administration to the consular officers of the Nations to which the deceased owed allegiance, we will proceed to examine the treaties in question with a view to determining whether such a right has been given in the present instance.

This determination depends, primarily, upon the construction of Art. 9 of the Argentine treaty of 1853, giving to the consular officers of the respective countries, as to citizens dying intestate, the right "to intervene in the

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possession, administration and judicial liquidation of the estate of the deceased, conformably with the laws of the country, for the benefit of the creditors and legal heirs." It will be observed that, whether in the possession, the administration or the judicial liquidation of the estate, the sole right conferred is that of intervention and that conformably with the laws of the country. Does this mean the right to administer the property of such decedent and to supersede the local law as to the administration of such estate? The right to intervene at once suggests the privilege to enter into a proceeding already begun, rather than the right to take and administer the property.

Literally, to intervene means, as the derivation of the word indicates [inter, between, and venire, come], to come between. Such is the primary definition of the word given in Webster's Dictionary and in the Century Dictionary. When the term is used in reference to legal proceedings, it covers the right of one to interpose in, or become a party to, a proceeding already instituted, as a creditor may intervene in a foreclosure suit to enforce a lien upon property or some right in connection therewith; a stockholder may sometimes intervene in a suit brought by a corporation; the Government is sometimes allowed to intervene in suits between private parties to protect a public interest, and whether we look to the English ecclesiastical law, the civil law, from which the Argentine law is derived, or the common law, the meaning is the same.

"In ecclesiastical law. The proceeding of a third person, who, not being originally a party to the suit or proceeding, but claiming an interest in the subject-matter in dispute, in order the better to protect such interest, interposes his claim. 2 Chit. Pr. 492; 3 Chit. Commer. Law, 633; 2 Hagg. Const. 137; 3 Phillim. Ecc. Law, 586.

"In the civil law. The act by which a third party demands to be received as a party in a suit pending between other persons.

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"The intervention is made either for the purpose of being joined to the plaintiff, and to claim the same thing he does, or some other thing connected with it; or to join the defendant, and with him to oppose the claim of the plaintiff, which it is his interest to defeat. Poth. Proc. Civile, pt. 1, c. 2, § 7, no. 3.

"In practice.-A proceeding in a suit or action by which a third person is permitted by the court to make himself a party, either joining the plaintiff in claiming what is sought by the complaint, or uniting with the defendant in resisting the claims of the plaintiff, or demanding something adversely to both of them. Logan v. Greenlaw (C. C.), 12 Fed. Rep. 16; Fischer v. Hanna, 8 Colo. App. 471, 47 Pac. Rep. 303; Gale v. Frazier, 4 Dakota, 196, 30 N. W. Rep. 138; Reay v. Butler (Cal.), 7 Pac. Rep. 671." Black's Law Dictionary, p. 651.

Emphasis is laid upon the right under the Argentine treaty to intervene in possession, as well as administration and judicial liquidation; but this term can only have reference to the universally recognized right of a consul to temporarily possess the estate of a citizen of his nation for the purpose of protecting and conserving the rights of those interested before it comes under the jurisdiction of the laws of the country for its administration. The right to intervene in administration and judicial liquidation is for the same general purpose, and presupposes an administration or judicial liquidation instituted otherwise than by the consul, who is authorized to intervene.

So, looking at the terms of the treaty, we cannot perceive an intention to give the original administration of an estate to the Consul-General, to the exclusion of one authorized by local law to administer the estate.

But it is urged that treaties are to be liberally construed. Like other contracts, they are to be read in the light of the conditions and circumstances existing at the time they were entered into, with a view to effecting the objects

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and purposes of the States thereby contracting. In re Ross, Petitioner, 140 U. S. 453, 475.

It is further to be observed that treaties are the subject of careful consideration before they are entered into, and are drawn by persons competent to express their meaning and to choose apt words in which to embody the purposes of the high contracting parties. Had it been the intention to commit the administration of estates of citizens of one country, dying in another, exclusively to the consul of the foreign nation, it would have been very easy to have declared that purpose in unmistakable terms. For instance, where that was the purpose, as in the treaty made with Peru in 1887 (August 31, 1887, 25 Stat. 1444), it was declared in Art. 33, (p. 1461), as follows:

"Until the conclusion of a consular convention, which the high contracting parties agree to form as soon as may be mutually convenient, it is stipulated, that in the absence of the legal heirs or representatives the consuls or vice-consuls of either party shall be ex-officio the executors or administrators of the citizens of their nation who may die within their consular jurisdictions, and of their countrymen dying at sea whose property may be brought within their district."

And in the convention between the United States and Sweden, proclaimed March 20, 1911, it is provided:

"In the event of any citizens of either of the two Contracting Parties dying without will or testament, in the territory of the other Contracting Party, the consulgeneral, consul, vice-consul-general, or vice-consul of the nation to which the deceased may belong, or, in his absence, the representative of such consul-general, consul, vice-consul-general, or vice-consul, shall, so far as the laws of each country will permit and pending the appointment of an administrator and until letters of administration have been granted, take charge of the property left by the deceased for the benefit of his lawful heirs and

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creditors, and, moreover, have the right to be appointed as administrator of such estate."

The Argentine treaty was made in 1853, and the Italian treaty in 1878. In 1894, correspondence between Baron Fava, the then Italian Ambassador, and Mr. Uhl, Acting Secretary of State, shows that the Italian Ambassador proposed that Italian consuls in the United States be authorized, as were the American consuls in Italy, to settle the estates of deceased countrymen. It was the view of the Department of State of the United States, then expressed, that, as the administration of estates in the United States was under the control of the respective States, the proposed international agreement should not be made. The Acting Secretary of State adverted to the practical difficulties of giving such administration to consular officers, often remotely located from the place where the estate was situated. See Moore's International Law Digest, Vol. 5, p. 122.

The learned counsel for the plaintiff in error, in his supplemental brief, has referred to a statement of the law of the Argentine Confederation of 1865, English translation published in Vol. 58, British and Foreign State Papers, p. 455, in which it is said that a foreigner dying intestate, without leaving a wife or lawful heirs in the Argentine Republic, or where he dies leaving a will, the heirs being foreigners absent from the country and the executor being also absent, the consul of the deceased foreigner's nation is given the right to intervene in the arrangement of his affairs. In Arts. III and IV it is declared:

"III. Consular intervention shall be confined to-1st. Sealing up the goods, furniture and papers of the deceased, after giving due notice to the local authorities, provided always that the death has taken place within the Consular district. 2d. Appointing executors.

"IV. The Consuls shall at once communicate to the testamentary Judge the appointment of such executors."

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