Family Law Commons^™

Property Torts Between Spouses And Use During Marriage Of The Matrimonial Home Owned By The Other, William E. Mccurdy

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Transfers Of Joint Property In Contemplation Of Death: A Call For Immediate Statutory Revision, L. Hart Wright

Michigan Law Review

For years the Tax Court sided with the government and the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in asserting that the contemplation-of-death provision of the estate tax act was sufficiently elastic to include the tax concept of ownership reflected in the joint-property provision of the same act. The alliance between those tribunals on this point was recently broken, however, when the Tax Court shifted to the competing view supported by taxpayers and the appellate court for the Ninth Circuit. It now believes that the two provisions mentioned above are complete strangers even though at one time these two were …

Marriage In The Conflict Of Laws, Charles W. Taintor, Ii

Vanderbilt Law Review

It must first be recognized that three different types of problems are raised in this field by what purport to be marriages: problems concerning the creation of the relationship of man and wife; those concerning the method whereby the parties signify their consents to the assumption of the relationship; and those concerning the legal protection accorded to claims arising therefrom. These involve, respectively, the status, the ceremony, and the incidents' of marriage.

It has often been said or assumed in the past that the laws of the domicile or domiciles of the parties at the time of the ceremony govern …

Descent And Distribution - Ancestral Property - Exclusion Of Next Of Kin Other Than Half Bloods, George F. Lynch

Michigan Law Review

The decedent died intestate owning land which he had inherited from his father. His only next of kin were four blood aunts and uncles on his mother's side, and three blood aunts and uncles on his father's side. The paternal aunts and uncles contended that the land descended to them alone by virtue of a section of the Alabama code, which provides: "There is no distinction made between the whole and the half blood in the same degree, unless the inheritance came to the intestate by descent, devise or gift, from or of some one of his ancestors; in which …

Wills - Revocation By Change In Circumstances - Effect Of A Separation And Property Settlement Agreement, Paul R. Haerle

Michigan Law Review

Testator's will, executed in 1944, named his wife executrix and sole devisee. One month before his death in 1952 he entered into a detailed separation and property settlement agreement with her in which, though not referring directly to the will, the wife released any present, future or after-acquired interest in the same realty as was devised in the will. The widow's offering of the will for probate was contested by the heirs. The lower court directed a verdict for the contestants on the ground that the agreement operated to revoke the will. On appeal, held, reversed. Since neither a …

Creation Of Joint Rights Between Husband And Wife In Personal Property: Ii, R. Bruce Townsend

Michigan Law Review

The net effect of the general legislation pertaining to the creation of joint tenancy has been to make lawyers sensitive to language expressing an intent to create joint tenancy, tenancy by the entireties and other types of survivorship rights which may or may not fall within the foregoing concepts. And so the law has busied itself with the task of giving technical meanings to words used by members of the public in their efforts to create joint rights in property-a task that has not been fully appreciated by people who acquire personal property from bankers, brokers, clerks and the like …

Advancements: Iii, Harold I. Elbert

Michigan Law Review

Many states have statutes which provide that support, maintenance and education of a child will not be considered an advancement unless the parent intended it as such. The Kentucky statute is typical and it reads in part as follows: " . . . the maintaining or educating or the giving of money, to a child or grandchild without any view to a portion or settlement in life, shall not be deemed an advancement." Most states do not have statutes of that type but by judicial decision reach a result that is in accord with the statutory provision just quoted.

Perpetuities And Other Restraints: A Study Of The Michigan Statutes And Decisions Relating To Perpetuities And Other Devices Which Fetter The Alienability Of Property, Against The Background Of The Laws Of England And Other American Jurisdictions, William F. Frachter

Michigan Legal Studies Series

The central theme of this study comprises the judicial and legislative rules developed to restrict attempts by men of property to endow their families in perpetuity, usually with land, in such manner that each successive living generation can neither part with the property nor prevent unborn generations from succeeding to it. Part One deals with attempts to accomplish this object by bestowing the whole title on each living generation but denying each such generation the power to dispose of the property or to prevent its· descent to the next generation. In this part the principal restrictive rules are judicial, the …

Advancements: Ii, Harold I. Elbert

Michigan Law Review

A voluntary inter vivos transfer by a parent to a child is not an advancement so long as the transferor lives. The purpose of the doctrine is to equalize an intestate' s property among his children. It is auxiliary to the distribution of his estate that the question of advancement is raised. The death of the transferor is not enough to give rise to the doctrine. The person seeking to charge the intestate's heirs with an advancement must prove several additional facts. The legislation of each state determines what must be proved in order to charge the transferee with an …

Cecil V. Farmers National Bank--Termination Of Limited Divorces, Robert C. Moffit

Kentucky 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 …

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 …

Some General Aspects Of Michigan Community Property Law, William E. Burby

Michigan Law Review

The common law, in recognition of the fact that one spouse is entitled to some economic security in the property of the other spouse, evolved the interests known as dower and curtesy. These interests, of course, apply only with respect to land. The husband enjoyed an additional economic advantage that came from the management and control of his wife's property. This latter advantage has disappeared with the advent of Married Women's Property Acts that confer upon married women the right to manage their own estates. Statutes have also expanded on the concept of dower and curtesy by providing for a …

An Introduction To The Law Of Community Property, Allen C. Steere

Indiana Law Journal

Address delivered at the Annual Meeting of The Indiana State Bar Association at Evansville, Indiana, September 5, 1947.

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 …

The Conflict Of Laws: A Comparative Study. Volume One. Introduction: Family Law, Ernst Rabel

Michigan Legal Studies Series

Full application of comparative methods to the law of conflicts requires a working plan of some magnitude. We ought to take stock of the conflicts rules existing in the different countries of the world, state their similarities or dissimilarities, and investigate their purposes and effects. The solutions thus ascertained should moreover be subjected to an estimation of their usefulness, by the standards appropriate to their natural objective. Conflicts rules have to place private life and business relations upon the legal background suitable to satisfactory intercourse among states and nations. They are valuable to the extent that their practical functioning, rather …

Antenuptial Contracts Concerning Property Settlements, A. E. Funk Jr.

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Subrogation-Rights Of Ward In Security For Debt Of Guardian Discharged By Diverted Fund

Michigan Law Review

S, guardian for some minor children, used $ 1200 of their money without order of court for the discharge of a mortgage on land belonging equally to himself and the wards. Plaintiff, obtaining a judgment against S, levied on his apparent half-interest in the land and purchased it at the execution sale for the balance due on the judgment. In partition proceedings the wards set up the unauthorized use of their money and claimed a lien for $600 on plaintiff's interest. Held, since the plaintiff gave no consideration except the satisfaction of an antecedent debt, it is …

Conflict Of Laws - Foreign Marriage - Dower

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff was divorced in the District of Columbia on the ground of her adultery with defendant's intestate. A statute of the District provided that the innocent party only may remarry. With no intention of evading the statute, plaintiff and defendant's intestate established a domicil in Florida and were there married. On the death of the latter in the District of Columbia, plaintiff claimed a dower interest in real estate located there. Held, plaintiff can recover. Loughran v. Loughran, 292 U. S. 216, 54 Sup. Ct. 684 (1934), reversing Loughran v. Loughran, (App. D. C. 1933) 66 F. …

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

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Matrimonial Domicil And Marital Rights In Movables, Arthur Leon Harding

Michigan Law Review

The American decisions in Conflicts of Laws relating to the rights acquired by one spouse in the property of the other by virtue of the fact of marriage stand as a monument to Joseph Story . Almost without exception the cases discussed hereafter have been decided on the basis of his thorough analysis of the law of the Pandects and the eighteenth century civilians. Even where his principles have not been approved, the courts have departed from them only after real and serious consideration. This fact, kept in mind, greatly simplifies the study of the cases themselves.

Does Equity Protect Property Rights In Domestic Relations?, Thomas D. Theobald Jr.

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Descent And Distribution-Status And Inheritance Rights Of Adopted Child

Michigan Law Review

The adoption of the children of another person is said to have been unknown to the common law. In re Johnson, 98 Cal. 531; Morrison v. Sessions, 70 Mich. 297, 14 Am. St. Rep. 500. However, the status of adopted children is one of very ancient origin, existing in Biblical times, Romans 8:15; 9:4:, and was developed to a high degree by the Greeks and Romans. Provisions for child adoption were incorporated in the Code of Justinian, SANDERS, JUSTINIAN; Am. ed. 103 et seq., and took their place in the jurisprudence of all countries in which the civil …

Matrimonial Property And The Conflict Of Laws, Herbert F. Goodrich

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Recent Important Decisions, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Carriers of Passengers - Duty to Stop at Station to Permit Passenger to Alight-Contributory Negligence of Passenger Plaintiff's intestate was riding in the front end of a crowded vestibule car in the coach next to the tender of the eengine. When the train stopped at his station he tried to leave by the front end, but found the door from the vestibule closed. As he did not know how to open it, or was unwilling to be carried by his station, he stepped from his platform to the bumper of the tender and tried to follow it to the side …

Power Of Wife To Execute A Demise Without A Joinder Of Her Husband In The Lease, L. C.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Specific Performance Of Contract To Release Inchoate Right Of Dower, J. W. S.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Note And Comment, Ralph W. Aigler, Edgar N. Durfee, Werner W. Schroeder, Arthur A. Morrow, Harry B. Sutter, Russell H. Neilson

Michigan Law Review

Estates in Fee Tail - Quite generally estates in fee tail under the STATUTE DE DONIS were recognized by the states as a part of the common law. Statutory provisions in the way of modification and abolishment of such estates, however, are very common. The nature and scope of the statutory provisions have varied. See the states classified according to the character of the legislation in BREWSTER, CONVEYANCING, § § 142, 143.

Recent Important Decisions; Book Reviews, Edwin C. Goddard, John R. Rood

Michigan Law Review

A collection of recent important court decisions and book reviews.

Note And Comment, John B. Waite, Thomas H. Westlake, William C. Mullendore, Harry B. Sutter

Michigan Law Review

Dean Pound Harvard has honored itself in the appointment of Roscoe POUND to the deanship of its law school