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Future Interests - Rule Against Perpetuities - Recent Statutory Amendment In New York, Paul K. Gaston S.Ed. Dec 1958

Future Interests - Rule Against Perpetuities - Recent Statutory Amendment In New York, Paul K. Gaston S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

After 128 years of criticism and confusion and enormous amounts of litigation, New York has amended its statutory rule against perpetuities. The old rule provided that the absolute power of alienation could not be suspended for longer, than "two lives in being" at the creation of the estate plus a minority exception in some cases. Under the new rule the absolute power of alienation can be suspended for a period measured by any number of "lives in being" at the creation of the estate so long as they are not "so designated or so numerous as to make proof of …


Should The Rule Against Perpetuities Discard Its Vest?, Daniel M. Schuyler Apr 1958

Should The Rule Against Perpetuities Discard Its Vest?, Daniel M. Schuyler

Michigan Law Review

From what has preceded it is apparent that none of those who would reform the rule against perpetuities, excepting Professor Simes, has suggested that the rule's application to remoteness of vesting alone requires investigation. Yet there is little doubt that this aspect of the rule has caused as much if not more litigation than those which have been so harshly condemned. Proof of this assertion will not be undertaken, for every property lawyer knows how frequently courts are called upon to determine whether for purposes of the rule an interest is "vested" or "contingent." Professor Simes put it well when …


Should The Rule Against Perpetuities Discard Its Vest?, Daniel M. Schuyler Mar 1958

Should The Rule Against Perpetuities Discard Its Vest?, Daniel M. Schuyler

Michigan Law Review

The venerable rule of property known as the rule against perpetuities has recently been subjected to numerous searching and critical analyses, some of which will presently be discussed. Thus far nothing has been published dealing with, and only Professor Simes has touched upon, what seems to the present writer to be the most serious problem engendered by the common law rule in its commonly accepted form, i.e., the notion that the rule is concerned only with remoteness of vesting. It is the purpose of the present discussion to examine the concept of vesting as related to the rule and to …


Future Interests - Rule Against Perpetuities - Recent Kentucky Legislation Pertaining To Administrative Contingencies, Jules M. Perlberg S.Ed. May 1957

Future Interests - Rule Against Perpetuities - Recent Kentucky Legislation Pertaining To Administrative Contingencies, Jules M. Perlberg S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

A recent Kentucky amendment to its perpetuities statute follows the lead of Illinois in seeking a legislative solution to the problems inherent in applying the rule against perpetuities to administrative contingencies. The amendment provides, inter alia, that the vesting of any limitation of property "shall not be regarded as deferred for purposes of the rule against perpetuities or regarded as a suspension of the power of alienation of title to property merely because the limitation is made to the estate of a person, or to a personal representative, or to a trustee under a will, or to take effect on …


Rule Against Perpetuities - Recent Legislation In Massachusetts, Maine And Connecticut, David W. Swanson S.Ed. Mar 1956

Rule Against Perpetuities - Recent Legislation In Massachusetts, Maine And Connecticut, David W. Swanson S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Three very significant statutes dealing with the rule against perpetuities and containing identical language in their important provisions have recently been passed in Massachusetts, Maine, and Connecticut. There are three basic provisions. (1) In applying the rule against perpetuities to an interest limited to take effect at or after the termination of one or more life estates in, or lives of, persons in being when the period of the rule begins to run, the validity of the interest shall be determined on the basis of the facts existing at the termination of the life estates or lives. (2) If any …


Simes: Public Policy And The Dead Hand, W. Barton Leach, John H.C. Morris Feb 1956

Simes: Public Policy And The Dead Hand, W. Barton Leach, John H.C. Morris

Michigan Law Review

A Review of PPublic Policy and the Dead Hand. The Thomas M. Cooley Lectures, Sixth Series. By Lewis M. Simes.


Future Interests - Rule Against Perpetuities - Actual Rather Than Possible Facts As Determining Certainty Of Vesting, Paul B. Campbell S.Ed. Dec 1953

Future Interests - Rule Against Perpetuities - Actual Rather Than Possible Facts As Determining Certainty Of Vesting, Paul B. Campbell S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

T died testate, leaving a life estate to her children A and B, with the remainder to granddaughter C. The will further provided that if other body heirs of A and B survived their deaths, then such heirs should share equally with C; and if all the grandchildren should die without leaving heirs of their body, then the property was to pass to T's brothers and sisters or their representatives. A and B survived but T died without further issue. Later C also died without issue. X held conveyances deeding to him the interests of the …


Is The Rule Against Perpetuities Doomed?, Lewis M. Simes Dec 1953

Is The Rule Against Perpetuities Doomed?, Lewis M. Simes

Michigan Law Review

Few rules of the common law have shown such amazing vitality as the rule against perpetuities. Emerging in the Duke of Norfolk's Case in 1682, as a rule to restrict unbarrable entails in land, it is now applied, not only to interests in land, legal and equitable, but also to personal estate, tangible and intangible, including beneficial interests in trusts. It is regarded as a part of the common law of nearly every English speaking country, except a few of the United States where statutory substitutes have been provided. Since 1930, statutory substitutes have been abolished and there has been …


Trusts And Estates-Trends In The Law: 1941-1945 (A Service For Returning Veterans), Lewis M. Simes Apr 1946

Trusts And Estates-Trends In The Law: 1941-1945 (A Service For Returning Veterans), Lewis M. Simes

Michigan Law Review

In every generation there are some judicial decisions so revolutionary that any summary of developments in the law, regardless of its author or of its brevity, would include them. Such cases as Erie Railroad v. Tompkins and Williams v. North Carolina will fall into this category no matter who lines up the materials. But such avulsive changes rarely if ever occur in the law of Trusts and Estates; and it is anybody's guess to determine the significant aspects of the day-to-day accretions which actually take place. Thus, the writer has no illusions that he is singling out the trends as …


Future Interests - Taxation - Evidence - Presumption As To The Possibility Of A Woman Bearing Children, Hobart Taylor, Jr. Aug 1943

Future Interests - Taxation - Evidence - Presumption As To The Possibility Of A Woman Bearing Children, Hobart Taylor, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Testatrix, a resident of Massachusetts, set up a trust of her residuary estate for her two daughters, the principal to be paid to their issue, but if either should die without issue, her share to be paid to certain named charities. On probate, the remainder to charity was held to be void. The income tax law of Massachusetts imposed a three per cent levy on income accumulated for contingent future interests, but exempted from taxation certain interests of nonresidents, including vested remainders not subject to being divested. The daughters, nonresidents, contended that their interests should not be taxed as contingent …


Trusts - Accumulation Of Income, James L. Mccrystal Aug 1942

Trusts - Accumulation Of Income, James L. Mccrystal

Michigan Law Review

Testator left his estate in trust until twenty-one years after the death of two nieces, the trust income to be used first to pay several annuities and the remainder "to be re-invested by the trustee for the increase and benefit of this trust fund." At the expiration of twenty-one years after the death of both nieces the trust was to terminate and the estate to be distributed. The lower court held that, while the trust did not violate the rule against perpetuities nor the District of Columbia statute as to the suspension of the power of alienation, the trust income …


The Classification Of Some Powers Of Appointment, Joseph Gold Jan 1942

The Classification Of Some Powers Of Appointment, Joseph Gold

Michigan Law Review

Many problems involving powers of appointment depend for their solution on the classification of the power in question as general or special. It is now clearly established in English law and in most American jurisdictions that this classification depends on the persons to whom an appointment may be made. The fact that the power is exercisable on a contingency or in a specified manner does not affect the character of the power. Nor is it relevant for the purpose of classification that the power permits the appointment of a limited interest only. A general power is usually said to be …


Trusts - Duration Of An Indestructible Trust Feb 1936

Trusts - Duration Of An Indestructible Trust

Michigan Law Review

The celebrated case of Claflin v. Claflin left in its wake a number of novel legal problems, some of which have been at best only partially resolved. One of the most perplexing is that of the duration of the so-called "indestructible trust." Once such an "indestructible trust" is created, how long may it be permitted to endure? If an attempt is made to attain excessive duration, what penalty attaches? What disposition will be made of the legal and equitable estates?


Trusts-Perpetuities-Trust To Maintain Testator's Grave Jan 1931

Trusts-Perpetuities-Trust To Maintain Testator's Grave

Michigan Law Review

The testator bequeathed $500 in trust, to be used until exhausted in purchasing flowers for his grave three times a year. Held, the trust was non-charitable and invalid as contrary to the rule against perpetuities. Meehan v. Hurley (R. I. 1930) 150 Atl. 819.