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May A Man Provide In His Will That His Wife Shall Not Take Under It Unless She Shall Survive Him For A Period Of Forty-Eight Hours?, Stephen Darden Brown

Washington Law Review

The advantages are apparent that might be gained by a man including in his will the provision that his wife should not take under it unless she should survive him for a period of, say, forty-eight hours. As an example, there is the famous French case of Fair v. Vanderbilt, in which both spouses were killed, the wife surviving the husband fifty-nine seconds, and of which a learned author once remarked, "It was the first time in history that a man and his wife were ever killed while riding together." No provision had been made in contemplation of either co-accidental …