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Full-Text Articles in Estates and Trusts
Tribute To William F. Fratcher: Marital Property Rights In Transition, Lawrence W. Waggoner
Tribute To William F. Fratcher: Marital Property Rights In Transition, Lawrence W. Waggoner
Articles
"Marital property rights," a term that covers a vast multitude of rights or interests conferred by law on persons who occupy the status of spouse, are in a state of transition. To discuss the themes and trends that are emerging, this Article is divided into four discrete, yet related segments. The first segment addresses how the law allocates original ownership between spouses in a marriage. The second segment turns to the intestate share of the surviving spouse. This is not a topic that much concerns high-powered estate planners because intestate estates are usually fairly small. But to the surviving spouse, …
The Emergence Of A General Reformation Doctrine For Wills, Lawrence W. Waggoner, John H. Langbein
The Emergence Of A General Reformation Doctrine For Wills, Lawrence W. Waggoner, John H. Langbein
Articles
In this article, which both summarizes and updates an extensively footnoted article published last year ("Reformation of Wills on the Ground of Mistake: Change of Direction in American Law?" 130 University of Pennsylvania Law Rmiew 521 (1982)), we report on this new case law and discuss the analytic framework that we think it suggests and requires.
Reformation Of Wills On The Ground Of Mistake: Change Of Direction In American Law?, John H. Langbein, Lawrence W. Waggoner
Reformation Of Wills On The Ground Of Mistake: Change Of Direction In American Law?, John H. Langbein, Lawrence W. Waggoner
Articles
Although it has been "axiomatic" that our courts do not entertain suits to reform wills on the ground of mistake, appellate courts in California, New Jersey, and New York have decided cases within the last five years that may presage the abandonment of the ancient "no-reformation" rule. The new cases do not purport to make this fundamental doctrinal change, although the California Court of Appeal in Estate of Taff and the New Jersey Supreme Court in Engle v. Siegel did expressly disclaim a related rule, sometimes called the "plain meaning" rule. That rule, which hereafter we will call the "no-extrinsic-evidence …
Descent And Distribution--The 'Worthier Title" Doctrine In Iowa--A Limitation Established, Lewis R. Williams, Jr. S.Ed.
Descent And Distribution--The 'Worthier Title" Doctrine In Iowa--A Limitation Established, Lewis R. Williams, Jr. S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
Testator left his entire estate of less than $7,500 to his wife who had predeceased him. Defendants claimed the estate through operation of the anti-lapse statute, as heirs of the wife. As the distribution statute gave the widow of an intestate the first $7,500 of the estate, plaintiffs, heirs at law of the testator, claimed title on a basis of the "worthier title" doctrine, arguing that the widow, had she lived, would have taken by descent and not by purchase, and therefore the anti-lapse statute did not apply. On appeal from a denial of defendants' motion to transfer the proceeding …
Conflict Of Laws-Model Execution Of Wills Statute-Law Governing Revocation Of Will, Edward W. Rothe S.Ed.
Conflict Of Laws-Model Execution Of Wills Statute-Law Governing Revocation Of Will, Edward W. Rothe S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
Decedent's will, devising Iowa realty, was denied probate in Illinois, the state of domicile, on grounds that the will had been revoked by cancellation. The devisees offered the will for probate in Iowa, under whose law no revocation was effected. The heirs contested probate on grounds that the Illinois denial of probate was conclusive and binding on Iowa courts in view of §633.49, Iowa code, 1946: "A last will and testament executed without this state, in the mode prescribed by the law, either of the place where executed or the testator's domicile, shall be deemed to be legally executed, and …
Co-Tenancy-Conveyance By Grantor To Himself And Another, Shubrick T. Kothe
Co-Tenancy-Conveyance By Grantor To Himself And Another, Shubrick T. Kothe
Michigan Law Review
Decedent, owning land and personal property thereon, executed a deed purporting to convey to herself and her son a life estate in the property "as joint tenants during their joint lives and an absolute fee forever in the remainder to the survivor of them. . . " Held, the deed created a tenancy in common in both of them during their lives and an estate in fee to the survivor. Hass v. Hass, (Wis. 1946) 21 N.W. (2d) 398.
Future Interests-Worthier Title Doctrine Applied To Remainder To Next Of Kin Where The Subject Matter Is Personalty, Margaret Groefsema S.Ed.
Future Interests-Worthier Title Doctrine Applied To Remainder To Next Of Kin Where The Subject Matter Is Personalty, Margaret Groefsema S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
The trustee bank petitioned for instructions as to the proper disposition of the remainder of a trust of personal property, the principal of which amounted to some $29,000 upon the life beneficiary's death in 1942. The donor had provided for a life estate in the income, the principal to go to the settler's statutory next of kin under the laws of intestacy of the state of Massachusetts in default of the exercise by the settler of a reserved power of appointment. The court, having held that a will which Nicolls, the settler, had executed in favor of various friends of …
Revocation Of Wills By Subsequent Change In The Condition Or Circumstances Of The Testator, Elizabeth Durfee
Revocation Of Wills By Subsequent Change In The Condition Or Circumstances Of The Testator, Elizabeth Durfee
Michigan Law Review
Among the oldest rules in the law of wills are those by which a will is held to be revoked by implication by certain changes in the circumstances of the testator. The purpose of this paper is to investigate these rules. Special reference will be made to statutes, both those which deal generally with the subject and those which provide specifically for the effect of particular events, such as marriage; no attempt will be made, however to analyze the latter type of statute exhaustively. By way of introduction, a brief historical survey of the doctrine should be made.
Executors And Administrators - Effect Of Testamentary Provisions On Executors' Fees, Michigan Law Review
Executors And Administrators - Effect Of Testamentary Provisions On Executors' Fees, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
At the early English law an executor was entitled to the surplus of the personal estate after the payment of debts and legacies, but this practice nowhere prevails today. At common law the office of executor was regarded as honorary, to be performed without compensation unless the will expressly provided for compensation. It is doubtful if the common-law rule ever obtained in this country, where from a very early time it has been universally considered that executors are normally entitled to reasonable compensation not only to reward them for their time, labor and trouble, but also for the responsibility incurred …
The Widow's Right Of Election In The Estate Of Her Husband, Elbridge D. Phelps
The Widow's Right Of Election In The Estate Of Her Husband, Elbridge D. Phelps
Michigan Law Review
Before launching into the discussion proper, and in order to avoid confusion and misunderstanding later on, it is deemed wise at once to mark out boundaries within which it is proposed to confine the treatment of the subject here involved. Accordingly, in that which follows, attention will be centered largely on the necessity for election by a widow under modern statutes which allow her to take against her husband's will, and on the effects of her election or non-election upon her interest in her husband's estate. In so far as a surviving husband has identical rights, they will be adverted …
The Statute Of Uses And Active Trusts, Edgar N. Durfee
The Statute Of Uses And Active Trusts, Edgar N. Durfee
Articles
To explain the survival of uses, alias trusts, after the Statute of Uses, one is probably justified in assuming a sympathetic attitude toward this Equitable institution on the part of the Common Law Judges. Maitland, Equity, 29. But, however predisposed the Judges might be, they would have to satisfy themselves, perhaps others as well, that they were interpreting rather than nullifying the Statute. Only such uses could be saved as could be "distinguished." The case of the use raised upon a chattel interest is clear enough, as it was without the letter, and fairly without the mischief, of the Statute. …