Estates and Trusts Commons^™

A Future For Girard's Dream, Henry S. Hilles Jr., Wilfred B. Wolcott Jr.

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Property--Cancellation Of Note At Payee's Death Not Testamentary Gift, Ralph Judy Bean Jr.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Executors And Administrators-Sale Of Realty In The Estate-Better Price As Reason For Permitting Sale Under "Best Interests Of The Estate" Provision, William J. Bogaard

Michigan Law Review

Pursuant to a Missouri statute permitting sale of real property for any purpose in the best interests of the estate, administrator filed a petition for power to sell realty in the estate of the decedent for the reason, inter alia, that a better price could be obtained at a private sale than at a judicial sale resulting from a suit for partition. The plaintiff heir's subsequent bill for partition of the real estate was dismissed by the trial court, which found that the administrator's petition for power to sell had conferred jurisdiction of the property on the probate court. …

Wills--Devise Of Specific Portion Of Property Held In Contenancy, Richard Marion Alker

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Abstracts Of Recent Cases, Frank Thomas Graff Jr.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Abstracts Of Recent Cases, William Erwin Barr

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Descent And Distribution - Joint Ownership - Imposition Of Constructive Trust On Murderer Of Co-Tenant, John B. Schwemm S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

A husband, owning land with his wife as tenants by the entireties, killed her and immediately thereafter committed suicide. In an action to determine ownership of the realty, both the probate and appellate courts declared that since a relevant disinheritance statute was inapplicable, full title vested in the husband and, upon his death, descended to his heirs. On appeal, held, reversed. Despite the common law nature of such tenancies, equity will impose on the husband a constructive trust in one-half the property for the benefit of the victim's estate. National City Bank of Evansville v. Bledsoe, (Ind. 1957) …

Dispositions Of Property To Unincorporated Non-Profit Associations, Harold A.J. Ford

Michigan Law Review

It now becomes necessary to examine the cases in which the disposition could not be treated as one to the existing members. This treatment will disclose that some courts have been prepared to regard some dispositions to associations as being for the purposes of the association. The only way in which property may be devoted to a purpose without conferring beneficial interests on particular individuals is by a trust. Accordingly in many instances the disposition takes effect as a trust.

The Non-General Power Of Appointment -- A Creature Of The Powers Of Appointment Act Of 1951, Allan Mccoid

Vanderbilt Law Review

In the course of the past fifty years, during which estate planning has become a specialty rather than one of many jobs handled by the general practitioner, the power of appointment has become an increasingly popular form of gift. The two great advantages which have been claimed for the power are the introduction of great flexibility into the estate plan and the reduction of the tax burden on the property as it passes from one generation to another. It was presumably with both of these objectives in mind that Professor William J. Bowe made a suggestion last year as to …

Is The Rule Against Perpetuities Doomed?, Lewis M. Simes

Michigan Law Review

Few rules of the common law have shown such amazing vitality as the rule against perpetuities. Emerging in the Duke of Norfolk's Case in 1682, as a rule to restrict unbarrable entails in land, it is now applied, not only to interests in land, legal and equitable, but also to personal estate, tangible and intangible, including beneficial interests in trusts. It is regarded as a part of the common law of nearly every English speaking country, except a few of the United States where statutory substitutes have been provided. Since 1930, statutory substitutes have been abolished and there has been …

Book Reviews, Harold W. Holt, Harold G. Wren (Reviewer), Walter Chandler (Reviewer), Harold W. Hannah (Reviewer)

Vanderbilt Law Review

Marital Property in Conflict of Laws By Harold Marsh, Jr. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1952. Pp.

reviewer: Harold Wright Holt

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Life Insurance and Estate Tax Planning By William J. Bowe Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, November 1952 Revision. Pp. 109.$2.10

reviewer: Harold G. Wren

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Caruthers' History of a Lawsuit Seventh Edition by Sam Gilreath Cincinnati: The W. H. Anderson Company, 1951. Pp. 1088. $17.50.

reviewer: Walter Chandler

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Legal Status of the Tenant Farmer in the Southeast By Charles S.Mangum Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1952.Pp. viii, 478, $7.50.

reviewer: Harold W. Hannah

Retroactive Legislation Affecting Interests In Land, John Scurlock

Michigan Legal Studies Series

Professor Scurlock's monograph covers an area of the law which is commonly by-passed in treatises and in classroom instruction. If we could merely tear Maitland's "seamless web" of the law and retain all the shreds, no part of the legal system would escape us. What we actually do, however, is to set up, in a more or less arbitrary fashion, numerous centers of legal classification, such as contracts, torts, property and constitutional law, to which closely related legal materials are attracted as to a magnet. But those legal materials which stand midway between two centers of attraction are likely to …

Tax Planning For Nontaxable Estates, William J. Bowe

Vanderbilt Law Review

Owners of modest estates are always greatly relieved to learn of the liberal federal estate tax exemption of $60,000. Freed from the burden of federal estate tax planning they frequently turn their attention to methods of transferring property which will avoid the heavy cost and delay incident to probate administration. Joint ownership, gifts of remainder interests, donee-beneficiary contracts, revocable trusts are among the more common devices available. Use of any one of these plans may accomplish a shift in possession and enjoyment of property upon the death of the planner with no delay and minimum expense.

But the income tax …

Contracts-Rights Of Third Party Beneficiary-Effect Of Michigan Beneficiary Contract Statute, Gordon W. Hueschen S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

On agreement to make mutual wills, Stephen and his two sisters entered into an agreement whereby the sisters agreed to will to Stephen, or in event Stephen predeceased them, to his wife, all property which they should receive from their father. Stephen did predecease the sisters, whereupon they executed new wills with no provision for Stephen's widow. Upon death of the last sister, the widow's bill for specific performance of the agreement was dismissed by the circuit court. In affirming on appeal, the Michigan Supreme Court held that the agreement as to Stephen and all other persons except the sisters …

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 …

A Symposium On Estate Planning: Foreword, Mayo Adams Shattuck

Vanderbilt Law Review

The power and increasing value of conferences and symposia of the sort which the Vanderbilt Law Review has arranged is that a team of first class men are gathered together to give testimony and useful advice upon the various independent factors which must be taken into account in solution of this fascinating problem. When a group of distinguished scholars and practitioners like those participating in this symposium are willing to make thoughtful contributions to this sort-of round table, without hope of compensation except for the satisfaction that comes from the provision of sound ideas and the education that stems from …

Valuation Of The Family Controlled Business For Estate Tax Purposes, James O. Wynn

Vanderbilt Law Review

The starting point in the determination of the federal estate tax is the valuation of the property included in the gross estate.' While the Internal Revenue Code does not use the term "fair market value" in defining the gross estate, the regulations promulgated by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue as an interpretation of the estate tax provisions of the Code provide that "the value of every item of property includible in the gross estate is the fair market value thereof." While a creditable argument could be made that Congress, in using the term "value" in defining the gross estate, intended …

A Planner's Primer, William M. Reynolds

Vanderbilt Law Review

Anyone undertaking an assignment to write within a few pages under this comprehensive title must limit his coverage. This general article on a subject as intangible as estate planning omits entirely or gives short treatment to many considerations which may be of great importance to the conscientious planning of relatively complicated estate situations. Emphasis will be placed on the tax aspects of estate planning, particularly federal taxes, but consideration will be given to other aspects which may be of equal or even greater importance. This deliberate emphasis is certainly not intended to add to the misleading impression, too frequently held, …

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

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

How Far Will Multi-State Death Taxation Go--Curry V. Mccanless Revisited, Thomas A. Thomas

Vanderbilt Law Review

It is the purpose of this comment to show how the death tax laws today affect the estate of a person who dies in one state leaving tangible or intangible personalty in another state, and also to recall the laws as they existed in the not too remote past and to surmise what they will be tomorrow in the light of recent trends.

Equity--Removal Of Cloud On Title--Right To Bring Suit When Defendant Has Possession, K. K. H.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Trusts--Sale And Reinvestment Of Trust Property In Violation Of The Directions Of The Testator--Statutory Interpretation--Kelly V. Marr, Fred B. Redwine

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Remainders "From And After" Life Estates In Maryland, Edward G. Howard

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Deeds--Construction--Where Not Effective Until The Future, W. J. C.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Disposition Of Void And Otherwise Failing Devises In Maryland

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Gift Of A Life Estate With Absolute Power Of Disposal By Deed, James W. Simonton

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Perpetuity Statutes, Edwin C. Goddard

Articles

THE common law of perpetuities is one of the most interesting examples of almost pure judicial legislation. De Donis, The Statutes of Uses and of Wills, but gave wider scope to the development by the courts of rules of law to thwart the attempt of the great landowners to tie up their landed estates in their families in perpetuity. One body of rules to this end limited restraints upon alienation, another the creation of future interests vesting at too remote a period. Restriction of restraints upon alienation, and the rule against perpetuities, these two were developed for the same end, …

Escheat - How State Acquires Title, Edwin C. Goddard

Articles

Escheat is of feudal origin, and properly applied only to land which on failure of heirs or for certain other reasons, "fell in" to the lord under whom it had been held. Personal property without an owner, as bona vacantia, became the property of the crown. In re Bond [1901] 1 Ch. 15. In the United States escheat is used more broadly, but usually arises when the owner of property dies intestate without heirs. Our alienage laws have generally removed disabilities of aliens to take, but in some jurisdictions there may still be escheat because of alienage, see 5 MICH. …

The Writing Required To Establish An Express Trust Of Land, Edgar N. Durfee

Articles

It has frequently been said that the Seventh Section of the Statute of Frauds, concerning Trusts of land, requires a writing containing "all the terms of the trust." Forster v. Hale, 3 Ves. 707; Smith v. Matthews, 3 DeG., F. & J. 139; Loring v. Palmer, 118 U. S. 321; Gaylord v. Lafayette, 115 Ind. 423; McClellan v. McClellan, 65 Me. 500; Blodgett v. Hildreth, 103 Mass. 484; York v. Perrine, 71 Mich. 567; Newkirk v. Place, 47 N. J. Eq. 477; Steere v. Steere, 5 Johns. Ch. 1; Cook v. Barr, 44 N. Y. 156; Dillaye v. Greenough, 45 …

Contingent Gifts And Incorporation By Reference, John R. Rood

Articles

The courts have had great difficulty in reconciling certain contingent gifts with the statutes requiring wills to be in writing duly executed. At first glance there appears no inconsistency, but in practice troubles accumulate.