Law Commons^™

Inheritance Crimes, David Horton, Reid Kress Weisbord

Washington Law Review

The civil justice system has long struggled to resolve disputes over end-of-life transfers. The two most common grounds for challenging the validity of a gift, will, or trust— mental incapacity and undue influence—are vague, hinge on the state of mind of a dead person, and allow factfinders to substitute their own norms and preferences for the donor’s intent. In addition, the slayer doctrine—which prohibits killers from inheriting from their victims—has generated decades of constitutional challenges.

But recently, these controversial rules have migrated into an area where the stakes are significantly higher: the criminal justice system. For example, states have criminalized …

The Danger Of A Label: How The Legal Interpretation Of "Care Custodian" Can Frustrate A Testator's Wish To Make A Gift To A Personal Friend, Kirsten M. Kwasneski

Golden Gate University Law Review

California Probate Code Section 21350 provides a presumption of invalidity when an elder or dependent adult makes a donative transfer to his or her care custodian. Part I of this Comment examines the climate in which Section 21350 was enacted, including a summary of the law that traditionally governed contests of testamentary transfers on the grounds of undue influence prior to the statute's enactment. Part II argues that the statutory definition of "care custodian" should encompass only professional care custodians. Part III supplies the textual amendments that should be made to provide sufficient clarification of the term's meaning. Part IV …