Folsom

Heydenfeldt, J., concurred.

This case has excited more public attention than any that, has heretofore been presented to this Court, both on account of the amount and the principles involved.

Its discussion has evinced a research and ability highly complimentary to the counsel engaged, without which it would have been almost impossible to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion.

The case stands thus: On the 18th of May 1848, Leidesdorff, a naturalized citizen of Mexico, died seized of the property in dispute, and that Anna Maria Sparks, his mother and heir, through whom defendant’s claim, was not at the time of his death a citizen of Mexico or the United States, but was, and is now, a subject of Denmark, and has never resided in the United States or Mexico. It will be observed that Leidesdorff’s death occurred twelve days before the ratification of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

The questions presenting themselves upon this state of facts are, first—was Anna Maria Sparks competent, under the laws, as they then existed, to take the property of Leidesdorff by inheritance ? And second—if she was not, has the State of California such an interest in the estate as can be maintained in…