506
Opinion of the Court
this innovation sua sponte; no party sought this alteration of our settled law. Delaware excepts to this "[d]epart[ure] from the rule of corporate domicile" as "inconsistent not only with this Court's precedents, but with fundamental principles of jurisprudence defining the relationship between the sovereign and its corporate citizens." Exceptions and Brief for Plaintiff Delaware E-4 to E-5. Finding that the "heavy burden" that attends a request "to reconsider not one but two prior decisions" has not been borne, Walker v. Armco Steel Corp., 446 U. S. 740, 749 (1980), we sustain Delaware's exception.
In Texas, we considered and rejected a proposal to award the primary right to escheat to the State "where [the debtor's] principal offices are located." 379 U. S., at 680. Although we recognized that "this State is probably foremost in giving the benefits of its economy and laws to the company whose business activities made the intangible property come into existence," we rejected the rule because its application "would raise in every case the sometimes difficult question of where a company's 'main office' or 'principal place of business' or whatever it might be designated is located." Ibid. Even when we formulated the secondary rule, we looked instead to the debtor's State of incorporation. Id., at 682. As in Texas, we find that determining the State of incorporation is the most efficient way to locate a corporate debtor. Exclusive reliance on incorporation permits the disposition of claims under the secondary rule upon the taking of judicial notice. Although "a general inquiry into where the principal executive office is located [may] see[m] neither burdensome [n]or complex," Report of Special Master 49, we cannot embrace a "rule leaving so much for decision on a case-by-case basis," Texas, supra, at 680. The mere introduction of any factual controversy over the location of a debtor's principal executive offices needlessly complicates an inquiry made irreducibly simple by Texas' adoption of a test based on the State of incorporation.
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