THE WIDOW'S RIGHT OF ELECTION IN THE ESTATE OF HER HUSBAND

Authors

Elbridge D. Phelps, University of IllinoisFollow

Abstract

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 to, but no attempt will be made to work out the variations in this regard. At any early point in the discussion a cursory reference to inchoate dower and to the necessity for election between inchoate dower and certain testamentary dispositions will be made, but merely as a background for the later exhaustive discussion of the widow's elective rights under modern statutes. Excluded from the discussion will be anything more than a general reference to the effects on third parties brought about by the election or non-election of the widow. Excluded also will be any attempt to discuss the technical procedures often set up by statute to govern the widow's election, either in the normal case or in the abnormal case where the widow is non compos mentis or a minor. No effort will be made to consider the general problem as regards those states having the community property system. Within these limits, discussion will now turn to the doctrine of election generally.

Recommended Citation

Elbridge D. Phelps, THE WIDOW'S RIGHT OF ELECTION IN THE ESTATE OF HER HUSBAND, 37 Mich. L. Rev. 236 (1938).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol37/iss2/4