500
Opinion of the Court
State of "the creditor's last known address as shown by the debtor's books and records." Texas, supra, at 680-681. Finally, if the primary rule fails because the debtor's records disclose no address for a creditor or because the creditor's last known address is in a State whose laws do not provide for escheat, the secondary rule awards the right to escheat to the State in which the debtor is incorporated. These rules arise from our "authority and duty to determine for [ourselves] all questions that pertain" to a controversy between States, Kentucky v. Indiana, 281 U. S. 163, 176 (1930), and no State may supersede them by purporting to prescribe a different priority under state law.
III
None of the parties contests the primary rule or the Master's recommendation that "where the state of domicile of an unlocatable entitled recipient is known, through finding a last known address, that state may take custody of the unclaimed distributions." Report of Special Master 56-57 (footnote omitted).11 The bulk of the abandoned distributions at issue, however, cannot be traced to any identifiable beneficial owner, much less one with a last known address. These funds thus fall out of the primary rule and into the secondary rule. Consequently, under Texas and Pennsylvania, the debtor's State of incorporation should be entitled to escheat this unclaimed property. The Master's report concludes, first, that the issuer of securities is the relevant "debtor" and, second, that the State in which the debtor's "principal executive offices" are located should be considered the debtor's State. We reject both of these recommendations.
A
"[W]here the entitled recipient's domicile is undeterminable (no last known address), but the state of domicile of the
11 New York has filed an exception to the Master's application of the primary rule. We address this argument in Part IV below.
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