Cite as: 507 U. S. 490 (1993)
Opinion of the Court
Our rules regarding interstate disputes over competing es-cheat claims cannot be severed from the law that creates the underlying creditor-debtor relationships. In Texas and Pennsylvania, our examination of the holder's legal obligations not only defined the escheatable property at issue but also carefully identified the relevant "debtors" and "creditors." See Texas, 379 U. S., at 675-676, n. 4; Pennsylvania, 407 U. S., at 208-209, 213. In Pennsylvania, we noted that Western Union was a "debtor" insofar as it owed contractual duties to two separate creditors. Western Union was obligated not merely to deliver a negotiable draft to the sender's payee; if Western Union could not locate the payee or if the payee failed to claim his money order, the company was bound to make a refund to the sender. Id., at 208-209. Correspondingly, we recognized that the relevant "creditor" might be either a payee or a sender: "the payee of an unpaid draft, the sender of a money order entitled to a refund," or a payee or sender "whose claim has been underpaid through error." Id., at 213 (internal quotation marks omitted).
Moreover, the rules developed in Texas and Pennsylvania reflect the traditional view of escheat as an exercise of sovereignty over persons and property owned by persons. The primary rule flowed from the common-law "concept of 'mobilia sequuntur personam,' according to which intangible personal property is found at the domicile of its owner." Texas, supra, at 680, n. 10. Accord, Pennsylvania, supra, at 217- 218 (Powell, J., dissenting). See also Blodgett v. Silberman, 277 U. S. 1, 10 (1928) ("[I]ntangible personalty has . . . a situs at the domicil of the owner"). In recognizing that "a debt is property of the creditor," Texas, supra, at 680, the primary rule permits the escheating State to protect the interest of a creditor last known to have resided there. Reasoning that "debts owed by" a holder of unclaimed funds "are not property to it, but rather a liability," we concluded that "it would be strange to convert a liability into an asset when the State decides to escheat." 379 U. S., at 680. Cognizant of the
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