Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/650

642, and the only question to be determined is that raised by the fact of payment of the deposit to Brennan.

Upon the trial the following facts appeared: The plaintiff was born in Ireland, and came to this country about the year 1859, and soon thereafter he became domiciled at the town of Cranston, Rhode Island, where he remained till after he made these deposits, except that he was temporarily absent for about two years, while in the service of the government, at Hilton Head. After making these deposits he returned to Cranston and remained there about a year, when he went to California. He left in charge of a friend in Cranston a trunk containing some personal effects, including his savings bank pass-book. When he went away he expressed the intention of returning in five years. In California he married, and lived with his wife and children for a number of years, and in April, 1879, he returned to Rhode Island, where he was living when this action was commenced.

After he left for California, and until his return to Rhode Island, in 1879, he had no communication whatever with any person in Rhode Island or elsewhere in the eastern states, or in New York, and no one in any of these states, so far as appears, was aware during all this time of his whereabouts, or whether he was alive or dead. By the laws of Rhode Island it is enacted that "if any person shall be absent from this state for the term of three years, without due proof of his being alive, administration may be granted upon such person's estate as if he were dead." The same statute also provides that in case such person returns into the state the administrator shall account with and pay over to him any assets remaining in his hands, and also account for what he has disposed of under his trust. Under this statute application was made in 1877, after the plaintiff had been absent about 10 years, to the court of probate of the town of Cranston, county of Providence, and state of Rhode Island, for letters of administration upon the real and personal estate of the plaintiff.

Letters of administration were accordingly issued, bearing date the twenty-fifth day of January, 1877, to John M.