Page:United States Reports, Volume 209.djvu/328

 302 OCTOBER TERM 1907. Opinion o! the Court. 209 U.S. agreement to the mother, we think it'is patent on the face of the bill that it but invoked the authority of the court to ex- ercise purely probate jurisdiction by administering and settling the estate of Rios, the estate of his son, and that of the oother, and, as an incident thereof, to liquidate the cpmmunlty which had existed between Rios and his wife. Indeed, such was exactly the sub6tantive relief which the bill as finally amended prayed. As by the bill it is allcgel that on the death of the father and brother probate proceedings concerning both tates had been commenced in the proper Porto Rican court, it results that not only did the bill seek to administer the estates through the court below, but it sought also to do so, although the estates were open in the local court and subject to the power and authority of such court. In establishing a civil government for Porto Rico, Congr,% scrupulouqly re- garding the local institutions and laws, by � of the act of April 12, 19';0, preserved the local courts, both original and appellate, and recognized their power and. authority to deal generally with all matters of lo6al concern. In creating by the thirty-fourth section of'the same act the District Court of the United States for Porto Rico, the jurisdiction and power of that court, we think by the very terms of the act, were clearly, fashioned upon and intended to be made, as far as ap- plicable, like unto the jurisdiction exercised by the Circuit and District Curts of the United States within the several States of the Union. It is true that the jurisdictioh' of the District Court, resulting from citizenship, has been made broader than that conferred upon the Circuit and District Courts of the United States within the States. But this does not tend in any way to establish that it was the purpose of Congress, in creating the District Court of the United States for Porto Rico, to endow that court with an authority not possessed by the courts of the United States (Farrell v. O'Brien, 199 U.S. 89), to exercise purely probate jurisdiction to administer and settle estates in disregard of the authority of the local court as created and defined by law.

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