Territory of Alaska v. First Nat. Bank
Opinion
Lead Opinion
Dietrich, J.
Sustaining a demurrer, the lower court entered judgment dismissing an alternative writ of mandamus directed to the defendant, a national banking association in Alaska, requiring it to disclose to the Attorney General of the territory certain dead accounts in the course of an investigation he was making to determine whether they had escheated to the territory. Plaintiff brings error.
No point is made touching the propriety of the proceeding, or the formal sufficiency of the record (Comp. Laws'of Alaska, 1913, §§ 1384-1397), and we are therefore concerned only with questions of substantive law. The proceeding is brought to enforce performance of a duty imposed by section 9 of chapter 40 of the Laws of Alaska for 1921, entitled “An act providing for the escheat of certain estates to the territory of Alaska, and providing for their disposal, and repealing former laws on that subject and declaring an emergency.”
Section 1 declares that: “When any person shall die intestate, without heirs, leaving real or personal property in the territory, the same shall escheat to and become the property of the territory of Alaska.”