Law Commons^™

Undoing Undue Influence: How The Doctrine Can Avoid Judicial Subjectivity By Omitting The Vulnerability Element, Robin Boyle Laisure

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

The utility of the doctrine of undue influence has been declining for several decades because of its inclusion of the element of vulnerability or, put another way, inquiry into the mind of the one allegedly being influenced. I argue that the courts’ inquiry into the mind of the influencee to determine whether this person was vulnerable is not a useful construct as an element of the doctrine. This Article addresses three contexts in which assessing one’s vulnerability is problematic: (1) in the contract formation process occurring in the general population (meaning not within a high-control group), such as the …

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Holmes: A Tale Of Two Testaments, Stephen R. Alton

Faculty Scholarship

Author's Note: This Article takes the form of an epistolary exchange across the centuries, comparing and contrasting two noted wills in Victorian literature. To preserve verisimilitude, the author lets these letters and emails speak for themselves, without any formal introduction, just as would have occurred in Victorian epistolary fiction. It is the author's hope that the relevant testaments and the legal issues they present will make themselves clear as these exchanges proceed. Any reader desiring a more formal introduction to this Article is directed to the first email (below) written by the author to Mr. Utterson and Mr. Holmes; this …

Why Does Lord Denning's Lead Balloon Intrigue Us Still? The Prospects Of Finding A Unifying Principle For Duress, Undue Influence And Unconscionability, Marcus Moore

All Faculty Publications

To this day, Lord Denning’s opinion in Lloyds Bank v Bundy remains a staple of first-year Contracts courses in law faculties across the common law world. After surveying doctrines such as duress, undue influence, and unconscionable bargains, Denning posited that they were instances of an underlying principle permitting avoidance of a contract for “inequality of bargaining power”. Although rejected by the House of Lords, Denning’s proposition has intrigued Contract scholars for more than four decades. Subsequent attempts to “fix” Denning’s thesis have fallen short. Yet, authors of Contract textbooks persist in asking whether the doctrines might yet be unified in …

The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll's Will: A Tale Of Testamentary Capacity, Stephen R. Alton

Faculty Scholarship

Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, published in 1886, is the well-known tale of a respected scientist (Dr. Henry Jekyll) who transforms himself into an evil-doer (Mr. Edward Hyde). While the work raises issues of tort and criminal liability, this article analyzes the legal issues presented by one particular and crucial plot device that Stevenson employs—the last will of Dr. Jekyll. This will so obsesses Jekyll’s friend and solicitor, Gabriel John Utterson (through whose eyes the story unfolds), that he is impelled to seek the truth behind his friend’s relationship to Hyde. …

Defects In Consent And Dividing The Benefit Of The Bargain: Recent Developments, Jeffrey L. Harrison

UF Law Faculty Publications

Contract law professors and students, attorneys, judges know that discussions about consent are rarely about consent. This results from three factors. First, it is the appearance of consent that is necessary to form a contract. Second, not every manifestation of consent is sufficient to create a contract that cannot be avoided. Third, interpretations of consent have the potential to allow courts to intervene when the benefit of the bargain is seen to be unfairly divided or one of the parties is actually worse off as a result of the contract. This Article assesses the extent to which recent decisions about …

Tipping The Scales In Favor Of Charitable Bequests: A Critique, Elizabeth Carter

Journal Articles

This paper considers the public policy favoring testamentary bequests to charity and offers a critique of that policy. Public policy favors testamentary bequests to charity. At least, that is the claim of numerous courts and legislative bodies. The policy favoring charitable bequests may tip the scales in deciding the proper interpretation of a will or the merits of an undue influence, incapacity, or tortuous interference with inheritance claim. Paradoxically, courts and legislative bodies rarely discuss the source of this public policy. Nor do they inquire into the wisdom of the policy. They should.

How Do I Love Thee, Let Me Count The Days: Deathbed Marriages In America, Terry L. Turnipseed

College of Law - Faculty Scholarship

Should you be able to marry someone who has only days to live? If so, should the government award the surviving spouse the many property rights that ordinarily flow from such a marriage? In almost every state, the only person allowed to challenge the validity of a marriage (or, by extension, the property consequences thereof) after the death of one of the spouses is the surviving spouse! Seems incredible does it not? The heirs of a dying man (or woman) who marries on his (or her) deathbed cannot challenge the marriage post-death. Ironically, the one person allowed to challenge is …

Love Your Husband – But Don’T Lend Him Money, Roger Bernhardt

Publications

This article discusses a California case where the husband’s note to his wife was held invalid for undue influence, and questions what unfair advantage means, its consequences, and how it can be rebutted.