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Trusts-Spendthrift Trusts-Restrictions On Alienation As A Constitutionally Protected Property Right Of The Donor, Thomas Hartwell

Michigan Law Review

The beneficiary of a spendthrift trust, created in 1921, sought to renounce and terminate her life interest, thereby vesting the fee simple of the trust res in her son, as remainderman, free of the spendthrift provisions. A Pennsylvania statute, passed in 1945, authorized anyone with any interest in real or personal property to disclaim such interest, irrespective of any so-called spendthrift trust provisions. Held, prayer for termination denied on the ground that the statute, as it applied to spendthrift trusts created before its passage, was a violation of the donor-settlor's property rights under the Pennsylvania Constitution. To allow the …