White v. Tennant

Michael White sold his West Virginia home and moved with his wife and all their possessions to a Pennsylvania house on family land, intending to live there permanently; finding the new house uncomfortable and his wife ill, they accepted an invitation to stay temporarily at the family mansion back in West Virginia while leaving all their belongings in Pennsylvania. Michael contracted typhoid and died there without ever spending a night in the Pennsylvania house, and the administrator distributed his estate under West Virginia law favoring his wife Lucinda (defendant); Michael's siblings (plaintiffs), who would receive half under Pennsylvania law, sued arguing Pennsylvania law should govern, and the circuit court dismissed their claim.

Whether a new domicile is established when a person abandons his existing residence and moves his belongings to a new residence with the intent to remain there permanently, even though he never actually spends a night there due to unforeseen circumstances.