Estates and Trusts Commons^™

Foreword, Mayo A. Shattuck

Vanderbilt Law Review

In order to get a proper measure of modern Estate Planning I think it may be useful to consider, very briefly, some aspects of its history. The family trust was born into our jurisprudence in an environment which had been moulded in that solid and immovable pyramid called feudalism. In that social order there was nothing of imaginative elasticity. Lateral allegiances or entanglements were as little known as lateral movements. All lines of authority moved from the top; all discharges of duties were rendered vertically to the liege lord next above. As with human relationships so also with property. The …

Future Interests-Construction Of "Surviving" In Substitutionary Gift Of Remainder, J. R. Mackenzie S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Testator's will provided that his property should go to his wife W for life, then in equal shares to his sister A and his brothers B and C. The language used was appropriate to create vested remainders in A, B and C. The will then provided, "And in case of the death of my said sister or either of my said brothers before the death of my said wife, the share that he or she would have taken shall be divided equally between his or her surviving children, by right of representation." A and B died before testator; …

Bastards-Illegitimate Child's Right To Pension Payable To "Child" Of Deceased Member Of Beneficial Association

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Domestic Relations-Divorced Wife's Right To Enforce Antenuptial Contract Providing For Payment From Husband's Estate

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Witnesses-Dead Man Statutes-Competence Of Spouse Of Party Or Interested Person-Effect Of Divorce, James E. Tobin S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The "Dead Man" statutes, enacted in various forms in almost every state, generally forbid a party or person interested to testify in an action involving a decedent's estate. As is well known, these statutes are the lone survival of the common law rule disqualifying parties and persons interested as witnesses in all actions, a rule which has otherwise been universally repudiated because of the realization that pecuniary interest does not necessarily raise any large probability of falsehood and that, even if it did, the risks of admitting such testimony can easily be minimized and are far outweighed by the advantages …

Dower--Property Subject To Right--Contract Before Marriage To Will To Another, D. B. H.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Statute Of Frauds-Extinguishment Of Beneficial Interest In Constructive Trust In Land, Richard J. Archer

Michigan Law Review

In order to increase borrowing capacity the husband conveyed several parcels of land to his wife so as to establish a separate credit for her; parol evidence indicated that the conveyance was for the use of the husband. Subsequently their relations became estranged, and the husband attempted a parol surrender of the parcels to his wife. The New Jersey Statute of Frauds is the counterpart of the English Statute requiring the creation of an express trust to be manifested and proved by writing but excluding from the requirement of writing creations, transfers, or extinguishments by operation of law. In a …

Wills--Adopted Child As "Issue" Within Meaning Of Anti-Lapse Statute, George A. Rinker

Michigan Law Review

Testatrix, by her will, left the residue of her estate to her two sisters, their heirs and assigns forever. Appellee, an adopted daughter of one sister who predeceased testatrix, claimed one half of the residue by substitution under the Ohio anti-lapse statute. Held, an adopted child is "issue" within the meaning of the anti-lapse statute, which in terms provides that issue of a predeceased devisee will take. Appellee takes by substitution for her adoptive mother. Flynn v. Bredbeck, (Ohio 1946) 68 N.K (2d) 75.

Taxation--Estate Tax--Alimony Deduction, J. G. H.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Descent And Distribution--Illegitimate--Inheritance Through Father From Collateral Kindred Of Father--Indiana Statute, Joseph N. Morency, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Appeal by illegitimate from an adverse ruling in the trial court, presenting the question whether an illegitimate son, acknowledged by his father, can inherit a share of the estate of the father's sister who survived the father. Held, reversing the Appellate Court, although the statute grants to an acknowledged illegitimate the right to inherit from his father in the event that no legitimate children nor descendants of legitimate children survive the father, an illegitimate cannot inherit through his father from the father's sister. Phillips v. Townsend, (Ind. 1945) 62 N.E. (2d) 860.

The Present Status Of "Illusory" Trusts-The Doctrine On Newman V. Dore Brought Down To Date, Edward A. Smith

Michigan Law Review

It has long been the policy of the law to provide for a widow by setting aside some portion of her deceased husband's estate for her future support. Such a policy, it has been said, dates back to the laws of Hammurabi and later evidences of it may. be found in the Justinian Code of the Roman Law, and in English law from the earliest times; its final manifestation being in the well-known common law dower. It is not with dower, however, that we are here concerned, for that institution is sufficiently well understood to require no discussion in this …

Construction Of Private Instruments Where Adopted Children Are Concerned: Ii, J. Wesley Oler

Michigan Law Review

Thus far in the discussion the attempt has been to consider a number of common terms of general designation, such as "children," "issue," and "heirs," detached from other language with which they may be found and disassociated from the circumstances under which they may be used, with a view to estimating their intrinsic significance in resolving questions as to the effect of adoption upon the identification of persons designated by them. The examination from this point: of view could lead to the deduction that in themselves the particular terms of designation furnished varying degrees of assistance to the interpreter of …

Construction Of Private Instrument's Where Adopted Children Are Concerned: I, J. Wesley Oler

Michigan Law Review

The institution of adoption is of ancient tradition, knowing primitive origin and tracing its history through many civilizations. Today its universality still bespeaks the human needs from which it springs.

Recent growth of statutory reforms, procedural and substantive, in our adoption system reflects the increasing social interest of the state in this field. Procedurally, extensive strides have been made to safeguard those directly concerned in adoption, and through them to protect the public in general. Substantively the lagging but nonetheless noticeable trend is toward complete legal equivalence between relationship by adoption and relationship by blood. At present, however, such equivalence …

Conditions And Limitations In Restraint Of Marriage, Olin Browder Jr.

Michigan Law Review

From ancient times it has been a practice of testators to provide for the termination of a devised estate upon the marriage of the devisee, or to make their gifts conditional upon a beneficiary's marrying in a prescribed manner. In this way, a parent may hope to extend beyond his death his influence over recalcitrant or irresponsible offspring. But restraints on marriage may have other purposes. More often than not, a testator, by limiting an estate until marriage or by providing for forfeiture upon marriage, may merely seek to assure the maintenance of a female beneficiary until a husband assumes …

Spendthrift Trusts: Reaching The Interest Of The Beneficiary For Alimony Or Support, R. Vincent Goodlett

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Trusts-Right Of Divorced Wife Of Beneficiary Of Spendthrift Trust To Reach The Beneficiary's Interest In The Trust For Alimony And Support For Children, W. Wallace Kent

Michigan Law Review

P, divorced wife of D, brought this action for alimony and for support money for her children. The object of the action was to reach the income from a spendthrift trust created for the benefit of D and his present wife and children in the will of D's mother. The will specifically provided that none of the proceeds of the trust were to go to P or her child. Held, the settlor had the right to devise her property in any manner she chose. There is nothing in the statutes or decisions of Wisconsin which forbid …

Gifts - Marriage And Divorce - Restitution Of Gifts Given In Contemplation Of Marriage, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff became engaged to Loretta Burns in 1914 and gave her a diamond ring. This engagement was ended in 1917 and the ring returned. A period of estrangement followed. In 1921, plaintiff gave her a dinner ring, in 1926 a wrist watch, in 1927 an onyx ring, in 1928 a diamond ring. Each gift was given on Christmas Eve. Loretta died in 1935, leaving defendants as heirs and next of kin. Plaintiff filed a suit in replevin and later a declaration in trover and conversion for these gifts. Held, after concluding that the evidence warranted a finding of an …

The Widow's Right Of Election In The Estate Of Her Husband, Elbridge D. Phelps

Michigan Law Review

Reference has already been made to the difficulties arising when the widow has elected to take under the will, and for some reason or other, intestate property also remains to be disposed. Further difficulty arises in those cases where the widow elects to take against the will and yet claims to share in intestate property. Shall her claim be allowed under those circumstances?

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 …

Taxation - Federal Estate Tax - Claims Arising Out Of An Antenuptial Agreement As Deductions From Gross Estate, Charles E. Nadeau

Michigan Law Review

An antenuptial agreement provided that in the event the wife survived her husband she would receive $50,000 in lieu of her dower rights. After his death the executors paid this sum, and then sought to deduct it from the gross estate as a claim against the estate. In affirming the Board of Tax Appeals the court held that marriage and relinquishment of dower were not "an adequate and full consideration in money or money's worth" and hence the claims were not deductible under the Revenue Act of 1926. Empire Trust Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, (C. C. A. …

Restricted Testation In New Zealand, Australia And Canada, Joseph Dainow

Michigan Law Review

One of the long accepted differences between the common law and the civil law has been the freedom of testamentary disposition of the former as contrasted with the limitations of the latter. Thus, while the continental testator was limited in the amount of property that he could leave away from the members of his immediate family, the Englishman could cut them all off without a penny. In other common-law countries the same liberty was continued; but recent years have witnessed important departures.

Trusts - Restraints On Alienation - Ability Of A Divorced Wife To Reach The Corpus Of A Spendthrift Trust For Alimony Claim

Michigan Law Review

Testator placed the residue of his estate in trust, and, after making provision as to one-third of the principal and income for his widow, left the remaining two-thirds to his children, or their children by right of representation, the net annual income to be paid to them in convenient installments for twenty years after his death, the principal share of each to be transferred in four as nearly equal installments as possible at five-year intervals. By a codicil, executed after plaintiff, the wife of one of testator's sons, had announced her intention of securing a divorce, it was provided that …

Future Interests--Posthumous Child--Child En Ventre Sa Mere Regarded As In Being

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Taxation-Federal Income Tax-Taxation To Settlor Of Income From Trust Established To Discharge A Legal Obligation

Michigan Law Review

Shortly before the entering of a decree of absolute divorce in favor of his wife, a husband agreed to transfer securities in trust for the wife's benefit in lieu of alimony and all other claims. The divorce decree incorporated the trust agreement. On certiorari to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, which had sustained a tax against the settlor on the income of the trust estate on the ground that it discharged a legal obligation, the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed the judgment. After disposing of the argument that the trust was entirely voluntary since …

Wills-Term "Children" As Including Adopted Children

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Wills - Revocation By Change Of Circumstances

Michigan Law Review

The testator executed his will providing that a termination of the marriage relation would make the provisions for his wife null and void. Subsequently, they separated, and, in anticipation of a divorce they agreed upon and carried into effect a property settlement providing that the wife should receive certain real estate, stock, and money in consideration of her surrender of all her rights of dower, alimony, and claims of support. A short time thereafter the wife sued for a divorce, but the action was discontinued when, in accordance with the testator's wishes, she went to live with him until his …

Adoption--Effect Of Informal Adoption In Equity, Charles W. Caldwell

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Specific Performance--Forcing Release Of Inchoate Dower Under Statutory Scheme, Kingsley R. Smith

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Wills - Legacies On Impossible Or Illegal Conditions Precedent

Michigan Law Review

If a devise of realty be upon a condition subsequent which is impossible of performance or which is illegal as being malum prohibitum, it is generally held that the condition is void, but the devise is free and single. In this respect the law pertaining to legacies upon condition materially agrees with that upon devises of realty. But perhaps one of the most unusual distinctions drawn in the law of property is that which is drawn between an illegal or an impossible condition precedent to a legacy of personalty and an illegal or an impossible condition precedent to a …

Descent And Distribution - Issue Of Void Miscegenous Marriage As Heirs Under Legitimation Statute

Michigan Law Review

An Indian married a negress in Oklahoma. The proper forms were observed, the parties acted in good faith, and thereafter lived together as husband and wife. Children were born to them. The marriage was absolutely void under an Oklahoma statute prohibiting such miscegenation and making it a felony. On the father's death intestate, the guardian of the children petitioned for letters of administration. Held, that under Okla. Comp. Stat. 1921, sec. I 1303, reading, "The issue of all marriages null in law . . . are legitimate," the children of the void marriage took as heirs, and the petition …