Pini v Pini

• Jurisdiction: Egipto
• Docket Number: 196
• Court: Court of Appeal (Egypt)
• Date: 28 April 1925

Egyptian Mixed Court of Appeal.

Case No. 196

Pini

and

Pini.

Capitulations — Whether Affected 266 Moslem Law — Origin and Development of Capitulations.

Proof of Nationality — Annexation — Effect on Nationality of Inhabitants — Option — Venetian Republic — Treaties of Paris, 1814, and of Vienna, 1815 and 1866 — Moslem Law Concerning Foreigners — Capitulations.

The Facts.—The case concerned the succession to one Carlo Pini who died domiciled in Egypt, and turned on his nationality which was claimed by some of the heirs to be Italian and by others to be Egyptian. The deceased was sprung from a Venetian family established in Egypt for five generations. His great-grandfather, born in 1769, married a native subject in Egypt, but had a domicile in Venice; his grandfather, born in Venice, also married a native subject in Egypt and was in the service of the Egyptian Government, but was registered as an Italian subject. His father, born in 1850, married a native subject in Egypt, and left a will in the Italian form. The deceased was born in 1873, served in the Italian army, and by his will left all his property to Ms wife.

It was argued against the Italian nationality of the deceased that—

(a) his great-grandfather and grandfather had the status of local subjects in Egypt;

(b) they had lost their nationality of origin, which was Venetian, on account of the provisions of the Treaty of Paris, 1814, the Treaty of Vienna, 1815, and the Treaty of Vienna of October, 1866, and the laws of Venice, France, and Austria with regard to expatriation;

(c) the provisions of the Moslem Law invested them with Ottoman nationality in virtue of their prolonged stay in Egypt, the Ottoman nationality of their mothers, and their purchase of immovable property in Egypt.

On the other side it was urged that the deceased had obtained Italian nationality, possessed Italian status, and had inherited Italian nationality according to the jus sanguinis; and that the provisions of the Moslem law were excluded in virtue of the Capitulations.

Held: That the de cujus must be deemed to have had Italian nationality.

(1) The possession of the national status of the deceased person inherited from his father cannot be rebutted by the proof of a different national status of his earlier ascendants; but can be rebutted by proof of the true nationality of the de cujus.

(2) Article 17 of the Treaty of Paris, 1814, confirmed by the Treaty of Vienna, 1815, which provides that in countries which are...