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The Case For Recognizing Informally Adopted Children As Heirs In Arkansas, Joel Gaffney

Arkansas Law Notes

Americans are steadily moving away from the nuclear family towards an understanding of family less defined by shared DNA or last names. This is especially prominent in the way children are raised. More children are being born to single or unmarried parents, and a fair number of children are being raised by nonparents. Such nonparental caretaking can manifest as “informal adoption,” where there is no biological or legal parent-child relationship but there is a functional parent-child relationship. Certain areas of the law sometimes struggle to keep up with these changes in the meaning society assigns to “family.” Statutory probate law …

Remediating Injustices For Black Land Loss: Taking The Next Step To Protect Heirs' Property, Phyllis C. Taite

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Intellectual Heirs Property: Why Certain Musical Copyrights Should Be Included In The Heirs Property Reform Movement, Austin Weatherly

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

The modern heirs property reform movement seeks to ameliorate the issues caused by the procedures governing the inheritance of real property from landowners who die intestate. This procedure can have a negative impact on heirs and the value of their inherited property. The reform movement, as it stands, only seeks to resolve the issues created by these procedures in the real property context. The rhetorical basis for the modern heirs property reform movement largely focuses on closing the racial wealth gap in the United States and slowing the wealth bleed from one black generation to the next. Many of the …

Planned Parenthood: Adult Adoption And The Right Of Adoptees To Inherit, Richard C. Ausness

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article is concerned with the effect of adult adoptions on the inheritance rights (in the broad sense of that term) of adult adoptees. The Article contends many adult adoption statutes assume the existence of a parent-child relationship in which the adopter is the “parent” and the adoptee is a “child” even though this is not true of all adult adoption cases. In addition, legislatures and courts frequently fail to differentiate between “quasi-familial” adoptions and “strategic” adoptions, particularly where inheritance rights are concerned.

Protecting Freedom Of Testation: A Proposal For Law Reform, Eike G. Hosemann

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article addresses a problem ever more pressing in wealthy and aging societies like the United States: interference with freedom of testation by the use of wrongful means such as undue influence or will forgery to acquire benefits through inheritance. A detailed analysis of the remedies against interference with freedom of testation under inheritance law, tort law, and equity reveals that there is currently a significant under-deterrence of this undesirable behavior. Hence, this Article proposes a new remedy in order to protect freedom of testation more effectively: a disinheritance statute barring wrongdoers that have infringed upon someone’s freedom of testation …

Incomplete Wills, Adam J. Hirsch

Michigan Law Review

This Article explores the problems that arise when a will fails to dispose of an individual's entire estate, so that she dies partially testate and partially intestate. The questions then raised include (1) whether provisions contained in the will purporting to redefine the individual's intestate heirs should supersede the statutory designations of those heirs, (2) whether inter vivos gifts to heirs should qualify as advancements on the inheritances of those heirs under conditions of partial intestacy, and, most broadly, (3) whether courts should fill in the incomplete portion of an individual's estate plan by extrapolating from the distributive preferences set …

The Specter Of Civil Law Clawback Actions Haunting U.S. And Uk Charitable Giving, Aaron Schwabach

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Of Charities And Clawbacks: The European Union Proposal On Successions And Wills As A Threat To Charitable Giving, Aaron Schwabach

Law Faculty Scholarship

In the United Kingdom, and to a lesser extent the United States, an inter vivos gift, once given, cannot be reclaimed by the giver's heirs. In civil law countries the situation is quite different: Not only spouses, but issue and in some cases even ascendants, are entitled to a forced share of a decedent's estate--and these forced shares are assessed against a notional “estate” that includes the testator's inter vivos gifts. If the total of these forced shares exceeds the amount actually available in the decedent's estate at death, the recipients of the gifts, or their successors, may be forced …

Graveside Birthday Parties: The Legal Consequences Of Forming Families Posthumously, Browne C. Lewis

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This essay highlights some of the legal consequences resulting from the widespread availability and use of reproductive technology. The Essay is divided into three parts. Part I examines the steps that must be taken to identify the legal parents of the posthumously conceived children. Part II discussed the reproductive rights of the deceased gamete providers. Since most posthumous reproduction is done using the sperm of dead men, the discussion centers on male reproductive rights. Finally, Part III focuses on the inheritance rights of posthumously conceived children.

The Uniform Probate Code Upends The Law Of Remainders, Jesse Dukeminier

Michigan Law Review

Nothing is more settled in the law of remainders than that an indefeasibly vested remainder is transmissible to the remainderman's heirs or devisees upon the remainderman's death. Thus, where a grantor conveys property "to A for life, then to B and her heirs," B's remainder passes to B's heirs or devisees if B dies during the life of A. Inheritability of vested remainders was recognized in the time of Edward I, and devisability was recognized with the Statute of Wills in 1540.

The Revised Uniform Probate Code, Lawrence W. Waggoner

Articles

In 1989 and 1990, Articles II and VI of the Uniform Probate Code (UPC) were revised by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL). Article II covers the basic law of intestacy, wills, spousal rights, rules of construction, and perpetuities. Article VI deals with multiple-party accounts and transfer-on-death (TOD) security registration. The major innovations in the revised UPC are driven by changes in legal theory. Three grand themes are at work in the new UPC: 1. improving spousal rights and sensitizing them to changes in family structure, 2. curing intent-defeating formalism, and 3. unifying the law of …

Property Rights Of Unmarried Cohabitants In New York: Proposal For Legislative Action Towards A More Equitable Future, Helene Kulczycki

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Twentieth-Century Revolution In Family Wealth Transmission, John H. Langbein

Michigan Law Review

The main purpose of this article is to sound a pair of themes about the ways in which these great changes in the nature of wealth have become associated with changes of perhaps comparable magnitude in the timing and in the character of family wealth transmission. My first theme, developed in Part II, concerns human capital. Whereas of old, wealth transmission from parents to children tended to center upon major items of patrimony such as the family farm or the family firm, today for the broad middle classes, wealth transmission centers on a radically different kind of asset: the investment …

Inheritance, Wealth, And Society, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Inheritance, Wealth, and Society by Ronald Chester

Giving Or Leaving--What Is A Will?, Olin L. Browder

Michigan Law Review

The question raised by the title of this essay should be essentially as simple as that: Do you want to give property, so that, having given it, it is no longer yours, or do you want to leave it behind at your death, directing who will receive it at that time? The statement of that issue suggests obvious differences in the consequences of inter vivos and testamentary dispositions. Most people also understand that a testamentary disposition invokes the elaborate machinery involved in the administration of a testator's estate, which confers special rights in the creditors and the spouse of the …

Trusts And The Doctrine Of Estates, Olin L. Browder Jr.

Michigan Law Review

The "doctrine of estates" is the common law system for the classification of divided ownership. Its primary purpose is to differentiate the legal consequences of the variety of concurrent, present, and future estates, but it also serves to differentiate the dispositive language required to create or transfer such estates. The doctrine of estates, therefore, embraces a sizable part of the law of conveyancing, including the large body of doctrine known as rules of construction.

In modern practice the classification and construction of present and future interests usually occurs with respect to beneficial interests in trust. It has not been sufficiently …

The New Arkansas Inheritance Laws: A Step Into The Present With An Eye To The Future, Robert R. Wright

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Medieval Law In The Age Of Space: Some Rules Of Property In Arkansas, Robert R. Wright

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Subsequently Probated Will Upon Bona Fide Purchaser From The Heirs - Matthews V. Fuller, Saul J. Mcgrane

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Protection Against Doubtful Claims During Probate

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Real Property-Tenancy By Entireties-Creation By Deed From Husband To Husband And Wife, Richard P. Matsch S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

H owned real estate in fee simple. His wife, W, joined with him in a warranty deed conveying the land to themselves with the expressed intention of creating a tenancy by entireties. H died and his heirs challenged W's right to take the fee by survivorship. The trial court held that a tenancy by entireties had been created and the wife properly took the fee. On appeal, held, affirmed, one judge dissenting. An Arkansas statute providing that a married man may convey "the interest specified in the deed" directly to his wife permits a husband, already owner …

Future Interests - Statute Abolishing The Rule In Shelley's Case Applied To The Worthier Title Doctrine, Joseph W. Morris

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff set up an irrevocable trust of $75,000 to pay the income to himself for life, and upon his death to distribute the remainder of the trust to his heirs at law according to the laws of succession of the State of California in existence at his death. He later brought suit to terminate the trust on the theory that the worthier title doctrine prevented the creation of a remainder in his heirs at law, and that as sole beneficiary of the trust, he was entitled to termination. Held, the worthier title doctrine was inapplicable because of a statute …

Problems In Probate Law: Including A Model Probate Code, Lewis M. Simes, Paul E. Basye

Michigan Legal Studies Series

The publication of the Model Probate Code, together with related monographs and appendix notes, serves a dual purpose. It is the report of a committee of the Probate Division of the American Bar Association. It is also the product of a research project carried on by the University of Michigan Law School. Mr. R. G. Patton, in his "Presentation of the Report of the Committee on Model Probate Code," printed elsewhere in this volume, has provided an appropriate preface for this publication in its first aspect.

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 …

The Organization Of The Probate Court In America: Ii, Lewis M. Simes, Paul E. Basye

Michigan Law Review

It is the purpose of the discussion which follows to consider how far the court organization in typical jurisdictions is adapted to a differentiation between contentious and noncontentious business. The sharp differentiation in English law will first be pointed out. Then the probate judicial organizations of various typical states will be considered in connection with the questions: How far have they retained the distinction between contentious and noncontentious business emphasized in the English system which served as their model? How far have they developed a basis of differentiation unlike the English model? The answer to these questions will involve some …

Trusts - What Constitutes Revocation When No Method Specified, Dickson M. Saunders

Michigan Law Review

By trust deed of 1927, settlor conveyed two mortgages {the first for $5,200, and the second for $1,000, both given by Harry E. Hough and wife) to trustees, in trust for herself for life, and providing for certain disposition upon her death. The trust deed was revocable with reserved power in the settlor to convey, release or otherwise dispose of the property. In 1928 the settlor released both mortgages but took in lieu thereof one mortgage for $6,200 from the same mortgagors on the same property. This substitution was effected to accommodate the mortgagors and no money changed hands. The …

Wills - Construction Of Technical Terms, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Testatrix' will executed in 1916 provided, inter alia, "In case of the death of any of the above named children, I give . . . his share to his heirs." A son of testatrix died in 1929, survived only by his widow, complainant here, and his mother. In March 1938, the New York Decedent Estate Law was amended to provide that the word "heirs" when used in a statute, will or in any other written instrument prescribing the devolution of property rights, without express or implied declaration to the contrary, should be construed to mean the distributees, including a surviving …

Joint Tenancy - Right To Transfer By One Party - Right Of Survivorship, John H. Pickering

Michigan Law Review

In two recent cases the Supreme Court of Michigan has had occasion to pass upon the doctrine of survivorship in joint tenancies. In one case the deed ran to father and son as joint tenants and contained a covenant that neither would sell without the written consent of the other. The father conveyed his interest without the son's consent and died. The court held that the deed created a joint tenancy, that since the restrictive covenant was void as a restraint on alienation and repugnant to the grant, the joint tenancy was severed by the father's conveyance, and therefore the …

Appeal And Error - The Administrator As A Party Aggrieved By Probate Of Will, John H. Uhl

Michigan Law Review

In an action to prove the existence of a lost will executed by the deceased, judgment was rendered setting up the lost will and revoking the letters of administration which had been issued. The administrator appealed from this order, and the appellee moved to dismiss the appeal on the ground that the administrator had no such interest as entitled him to review. The governing statute permitted appeal by "any party aggrieved by any final order, judgment, or decree." Held, that the administrator who has qualified as such was entitled to appeal under the statute, as the party aggrieved by …