•  
  •  

Home > Journals > Michigan Law Review > MLR > Volume 39 > Issue 5 (1941)

 

Abstract

Testator devised properties to trustees to provide his wife and son with an income for life. The will directed that upon the death of the survivor the corpus should be distributed to testator's grandchildren. A later codicil changed the will by providing that the trust principal and undistributed earnings left at the death of the survivor of the life tenants should be payable to the grandchildren when they should reach the age of thirty-five years. No provision was made for the continuance of the trust after the death of the life beneficiaries. Upon the death of the life beneficiaries, an action was brought attacking the disposition to the grandchildren on the ground that it violated the New York statute limiting the period for restrictions on the power of alienation. Held, the New York "two-lives" rule rendered invalid any restrictions on alienation beyond the two lives of the life beneficiaries. It was the clear intent of the testator, however, to fix as of the death of the survivor of the life beneficiaries both the persons who should take and the share to which each should be entitled. This dominant purpose can be accomplished without creating intestacy in whole or in part by striking out the invalid portions of the will and admitting the rest. The court hence ordered that the share of a grandson who had reached the age of twenty-one should be paid over immediately, and that the share of each infant granddaughter should be held in trust and paid over upon her attaining the age of twenty-one years, with no accumulation of income permitted during the interval. In re Eveland's Will, 284 N. Y. 64, 29 N. E. (2d) 471 (1940).

Download

Share

COinS