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Full-Text Articles in Law

Legal Effect Of Contracts To Devise Or Bequeath Prior To The Death Of The Promisor: Ii, Bertel M. Sparks Dec 1954

Legal Effect Of Contracts To Devise Or Bequeath Prior To The Death Of The Promisor: Ii, Bertel M. Sparks

Michigan Law Review

After there has been a contract to make a will it is often said that the promisor is a trustee of the property for the use of the promisee. This statement is usually offered as a reason for or an explanation of the relief granted in a particular case, without any indication as to how such a premise was arrived at and without any consideration of other possible results that might How from the designation of the relationship as a trust.


Legal Effect Of Contracts To Devise Or Bequeath Prior To The Death Of The Promisor: I, Bertel M. Sparks Nov 1954

Legal Effect Of Contracts To Devise Or Bequeath Prior To The Death Of The Promisor: I, Bertel M. Sparks

Michigan Law Review

Questions involving the rights, duties, powers, privileges, and immunities of parties to contracts to devise or bequeath are frequently raised prior to the death of the party promising to make the devise or bequest. In essence the problem is one of analyzing the legal relationships existing prior to the date set for performance. An analysis of these relationships is undertaken in this article. Vital questions concerning the formation of such contracts and their enforcement after the promisor's death are considered only when they appear essential to the development of the main theme which concerns the contract's effect prior to the …


Descent And Distribution - Distribution To A Nonresident Alien Prevented By State Staute, Eugene Alkema S.Ed. Nov 1954

Descent And Distribution - Distribution To A Nonresident Alien Prevented By State Staute, Eugene Alkema S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Decedent's sole heirs were residents of Poland. By virtue of a power of attorney executed and authenticated in Poland, the Polish consul general intervened to receive their distributive shares. A Massachusetts statute provided that a court may order the distributive share to be deposited for the benefit of nonresidents when it appears that they "may not receive or have opportunity to obtain" such money. Held, the distributive shares must be kept in Massachusetts as it is uncertain that residents of Poland presently could have full benefit of the funds if transmitted. Petition of Mazurowski, (Mass. 1954) 116 N.E. …


Wills-Construction-Effect Of Precatory Words Relating -To Disposition Of Property On Donee's Death, Donald M. Wilkinson, Jr. May 1954

Wills-Construction-Effect Of Precatory Words Relating -To Disposition Of Property On Donee's Death, Donald M. Wilkinson, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

After two bequests, each of an absolute interest in one-third of her property, to a niece and a nephew, testatrix bequeathed the remaining one-third of her estate to her husband " ... to have and to hold subject to the request hereinafter stated. It, however, is my wish and desire and I charge my said husband ... to make disposition ... so that it will not pass to his heirs upon his death, but shall revert, after his death, to my heirs and be distributed to the legatees named in subparagraphs A. and B. of this clause Eighth ... subject, …


Creation Of Joint Rights Between Husband And Wife In Personal Property: Ii, R. Bruce Townsend May 1954

Creation Of Joint Rights Between Husband And Wife In Personal Property: Ii, R. Bruce Townsend

Michigan Law Review

The net effect of the general legislation pertaining to the creation of joint tenancy has been to make lawyers sensitive to language expressing an intent to create joint tenancy, tenancy by the entireties and other types of survivorship rights which may or may not fall within the foregoing concepts. And so the law has busied itself with the task of giving technical meanings to words used by members of the public in their efforts to create joint rights in property-a task that has not been fully appreciated by people who acquire personal property from bankers, brokers, clerks and the like …


Taxation-Federal Estate Tax-Relevance Of Marital Deduction To Computation Of Widow's Distributive Share Of Husband's Estate Where She Elects To Take Against Will, Alice Austin May 1954

Taxation-Federal Estate Tax-Relevance Of Marital Deduction To Computation Of Widow's Distributive Share Of Husband's Estate Where She Elects To Take Against Will, Alice Austin

Michigan Law Review

A widow electing to take against her husband's will claimed to be entitled to have her one-third share of decedent's net personal estate computed without deduction of federal estate taxes, on the theory that Congress in allowing the marital deduction intended that a widow's share qualifying for such deduction should be free of the impact of the federal estate tax. The state had no statute providing for apportionment of federal estate taxes. Held: Congress did not intend, by allowing the marital deduction, to change the rule that state law is determinative of the impact of the federal estate tax. …


Defeasance As A Restrictive Device In Michigan, William F. Fratcher Feb 1954

Defeasance As A Restrictive Device In Michigan, William F. Fratcher

Michigan Law Review

Quite apart from any question of their validity, the imposition of use restrictions by means of a prohibition was not practicable before the development of equitable remedies because the common law afforded no method of enforcing such a prohibition. One who conveyed land in violation of a prohibition on alienation might attempt to enforce the prohibition by attacking the validity of his own conveyance but one who violated a prohibition on use had neither motive nor method for challenging his own acts. Hence attempts to restrict use by common law devices are necessarily confined to penalty restraints and to limitations …


Advancements: Iii, Harold I. Elbert Feb 1954

Advancements: Iii, Harold I. Elbert

Michigan Law Review

Many states have statutes which provide that support, maintenance and education of a child will not be considered an advancement unless the parent intended it as such. The Kentucky statute is typical and it reads in part as follows: " . . . the maintaining or educating or the giving of money, to a child or grandchild without any view to a portion or settlement in life, shall not be deemed an advancement." Most states do not have statutes of that type but by judicial decision reach a result that is in accord with the statutory provision just quoted.


Future Interests - Restraints On Alienation - Same Rules Applicable To Restraints On Future And Possessory Interests, Chester F. Relyea S.Ed. Feb 1954

Future Interests - Restraints On Alienation - Same Rules Applicable To Restraints On Future And Possessory Interests, Chester F. Relyea S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Testator devised real estate to his wife for life, remainder to his children, "with the following understanding," that should any child attempt to dispose of his interest before the death of the testator's wife, that child would forfeit his share and it would go to the remaining children. After the death of the testator, but before the death of his widow, one son conveyed away his interest in the property. In a suit for the partition of the real estate devised by the testator; held, on appeal, restraints on the alienation of vested estates in fee simple are against …


Trusts - Validity And Effect Of Assignment Of Beneficial Interest In Trust For Support - Claims Of Beneficiary's Divorced Wife And Children, William E. Parmenter Jr. Feb 1954

Trusts - Validity And Effect Of Assignment Of Beneficial Interest In Trust For Support - Claims Of Beneficiary's Divorced Wife And Children, William E. Parmenter Jr.

Michigan Law Review

A testamentary trust required the trustee to apply income in such amounts as might be necessary for the education, support and maintenance of H until he attained the age of 35 years; then to hand over the corpus and accrued interest. Contingent interests were created for children of H who might survive his death before the age of 35. After the death of testatrix, H married W and had two children. In an agreement subsequently incorporated in a California decree of divorce obtained by W, H promised to make monthly payments to W for her own support and for the …


Perpetuities And Other Restraints: A Study Of The Michigan Statutes And Decisions Relating To Perpetuities And Other Devices Which Fetter The Alienability Of Property, Against The Background Of The Laws Of England And Other American Jurisdictions, William F. Frachter Jan 1954

Perpetuities And Other Restraints: A Study Of The Michigan Statutes And Decisions Relating To Perpetuities And Other Devices Which Fetter The Alienability Of Property, Against The Background Of The Laws Of England And Other American Jurisdictions, William F. Frachter

Michigan Legal Studies Series

The central theme of this study comprises the judicial and legislative rules developed to restrict attempts by men of property to endow their families in perpetuity, usually with land, in such manner that each successive living generation can neither part with the property nor prevent unborn generations from succeeding to it. Part One deals with attempts to accomplish this object by bestowing the whole title on each living generation but denying each such generation the power to dispose of the property or to prevent its· descent to the next generation. In this part the principal restrictive rules are judicial, the …