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Full-Text Articles in Estates and Trusts
Fraud On The Widow’S Share, W. D. Macdonald
Fraud On The Widow’S Share, W. D. Macdonald
Michigan Legal Studies Series
This study seeks the answer to a troublesome question: What should be done about gratuitous inter vivos transfers in alleged "evasion" of the widow's statutory share? My thesis is that the statutory share should be replaced by the type of decedent's family maintenance legislation found in the British Commonwealth, and that this legislation should be buttressed with anti-evasion provisions. Inter vivos "evasions" seem to be a permanent and increasingly serious concomitant of our forced share system. Part I, dealing with matters of policy, explores the chief aggravating factors. These factors include the high rate of remarriage, which induces transfers to …
Wills-Constructive Trust Imposed On All Heirs Where Some Interfered With Execution Of Will, Herhert E. Phillipson, Jr.
Wills-Constructive Trust Imposed On All Heirs Where Some Interfered With Execution Of Will, Herhert E. Phillipson, Jr.
Michigan Law Review
Two heirs at law, by physical force or by creating a disturbance, prevented decedent from executing a will devising her property to plaintiff. Shortly thereafter, decedent lapsed into a semi-comatose condition from which she never recovered. Plaintiff asked the court to impose a constructive trust on the distributive shares of all heirs, six of whom were not parties to the fraud. The district court gave judgment for the plaintiff; the Court of Civil Appeals partially reversed, allowing the innocent heirs to take free of any trust. On appeal, held, judgment of district court affirmed. Since all heirs at law …