Estates and Trusts Commons^™

Wills - Revocation By Judicial Legislation, Edwin C. Goddard

Articles

Wills and their revocation as we know them are peculiarly the result of the actions and reactions of our common and statute law. We are sufficiently familiar with statutes, declaratory of the common law, in derogation thereof, and creating entirely new principles of law. We also know law the result of no legislative act. Whatever may or may not be admitted about court-made law, we see the undoubted fact that the great body of our law is the outgrowth of decisions applying to new conditions principles of law found in analogous cases, whereby the common law is able to adapt …

Deeds To Take Effect After Death Of Grantor, Ralph W. Aigler

Articles

That Instruments in form of wills may be effective as deeds of conveyance is clear. If a present interest is passed and execution is complete (which includes delivery), the instrument must take effect as a deed. On the other hand, If no interest is to vest until or after death of the maker and there has been no complete execution as a deed, the instrument, if operative at all, must take effect as a will. Difficulties arise when there is a fully executed deed, which, however, is to be postponed in its complete operation until the death of the grantor.

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.

Substitutional Gifts To Classes, John R. Rood

Articles

In some recent cases we have fresh reminder of the futility of Sir William Grant's distinction between original and substitutional gifts, a rule over which courts have quarreled and disagreed ever since it was promulgated, and which never was applied to the exclusion of anyone without disappointing the wish of the testator. In speaking of this rule in Re Hickey, [1917], 1 Ch. D. 601, 604, Neville, J., says: "The alleged principle seems to be that the meaning of the word 'substitute' involves the idea of replacing one thing by another. One cannot 'substitute' something for nothing. The proposition appears …

The Disposition To Be Made Of Property The Subject Of A Power If The Power Is Not Exercised, John R. Rood

Articles

The object sought in this article is to collect and classify the cases in which the courts have passed on the question as to what shall be done with property over which a power of appointment has been given; when it finally turns out for some reason that the power has not been exercised. It is not the object to establish any particular thesis, but rather to ascertain how the adjudicated cases stand.

Conveyancing In The Province Of Quebec, Howard S. Ross

Michigan Law Review

A solicitor who has had experience as a conveyancer in any of the other Canadian provinces is at first disappointed when he finds on coming to Quebec to practice that in Quebec the bulk of the conveyancing is done by Notaries who, as is well known, belong to a distinct profession founded on the French Notarial system. An Advocate may not be a Notary or a Notary an Advocate, at one and the same time. In a few cases young men take the examinations and qualify as Advocates and Notaries and then elect. Occasionally after practicing a number of years …

Notes On Some Interesting Wills, Sidney T. Miller

Michigan Law Review

In treating of this subject no attempt is made to deal with wills analytically or with much technicality. Rather is it the writer's aim to call attention briefly to some wills, ancient or modern, which stand out from the great mass for one reason or another. It would be easy to enlarge this into a treatise on the general theories of will-making; of the customs of different times and localities which sanctioned this or that form,-of nuncupative wills, holographic wills, and the secret or mystic testament provided for by the Louisiana Code, which is sealed up by the testator and, …

The Public Policy Of Contracts To Will Future Acquired Property, Joseph H. Drake

Articles

The general subject of wills upon consideration seems to have given courts and jurists a good deal of trouble, not only in England and America, but also in the continental countries. The Code Napoleon appears in terms actually to prohibit the making of reciprocal or mutual wills in the same instrument.

The Cy-Pres Doctrine, Harry B. Hutchins

Articles

The CY-Pres Doctrine.-The court of chancery of New Jersey in the recent case of Brow et al. v. Condit et al. (Sept. 30, 1905), 61 Atl. Rep. 1055, refused to apply this doctrine under the following circumstances: The will of one Susan M. Corson, bearing date July 7, 1897, disposed of her residuary estate "to the Hospital Fund for Sick Seamen at Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York, care of Mr. John M. Wood, chaplain." It appears that neither at the time of the making of the will nor at any time thereafter was there a fund in existence at or …

The Scope Of Texas Probate Jurisdiction Over Matters Incident And Appertaining To An Estate., Paula C. Tredeau

St. Mary's Law Journal

Providing for probate court jurisdiction to accommodate all types of probate issues would lead to a more efficient probate system in terms of cost, time, and judicial economy. However, the constitutional and statutory constraints establish serious limits on probate jurisdiction. The 1973 legislature adopted a major revision to section 5 of the Probate Code to simplify and clarify probate jurisdiction by reorganizing the probate court system. In the four subsequent revisions to section 5 of the Probate Code, the issue of whether to distinguish the phrases “appertaining to an estate” and “incident to an estate” arose. These subsequent amendments continued …

A Treatise On The Law Of Wills: Including Also Gifts Causa Mortis And A Summary Of The Law Of Descent, Distribution And Administration, John R. Rood

Books

“The present work was undertaken with the purpose of furnishing a substantial treatise on the whole law of succession in one volume. Within this scheme were comprehended the separate topics following: 1, gifts causa mortis, by reason of their resemblance to legacies; 2, wills, including all legal questions and doctrines peculiar to wills; 3, the substantive law of descent and distribution; and 4, the adjective law of succession, including the administration of both testate and intestate estates.”--Preface.

The Income Distribution Deduction Of Trusts And Estates, Ljubomir Nacev

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cases On The Law Of Succession To Property After The Death Of The Owner, Floyd R. Mechem

Books

“The following cases have been printed at the request of Professor Mechem, of the Law Department of the University of Michigan, for use in connection with his lectures in that law school. They have been chiefly selected from Reeves’ Cases on Wills and Abbott’s Cases on Descent, Wills, and Administration.” Title page.

Testamentary Promises To Pay, Nathan Abbott

Articles

The New York Law Journal for May 23, 1892, contains a suggestive editorial headed "A Will or Not a Will," in which the writer says "Interesting questions are constantly arising in the classification of instruments which, although expressing wishes or intentions to be carried out after death, are open to criticism on the score of testamentary execution." As is intimated by the writer, the difficulty of placing an instrument in either the class of contracts or wills is considerably diminished if the statutory provisions as to execution of wills are elaborate. Where holographic wills are allowed, or wills of personal …

David Maynard Et Al V. Fractional School District, & C., Thomas M. Cooley

Articles

"A bequest to the members composing the School District by name, and to their successors in office, of moneys to be expended in the purchase of books for a district library -- thy being the officers designated by law to preform similar duties for the district -- is in effect a bequest to the district."

Lucy M. Maynard by her last will directed the residue of her estate be sold and the monies be placed at the disposal of the District Board of the Fractional School District in Milan and York, Michigan, and used for library supplies. "The validity of …