FUTURE INTERESTS - ACCELERATION OF CONTINGENT REMAINDERS AFTER WIDOW'S ELECTION TO TAKE AGAINST WILL

Authors

Harry M. Nayer, University of Michigan Law School

Abstract

Testator made specific bequests in the first five items of his will, one bequest being directed to his wife. In the sixth item he gave his wife a life interest in all the property remaining after satisfying items one to five. Item seven provided for a remainder in some specific realty to a niece, and item eight provided that upon the death of the wife and after satisfying item seven, the residue of the estate was to go to five named beneficiaries and to all of his nephews and nieces "then living." The widow renounced her share under the will and took her statutory share of one third of all the property. Held, the remainders were accelerated into possessory estates; "then living" referred to the termination of the previous life estate and not to the death of the life tenant; the termination of the life estate closed the class; and the disappointed legatees under items one to four would be compensated first out of the proceeds of the specific bequest renounced by the widow, and the balance be secured by a lien imposed on the accelerated remainders. Tomb v. Bardo, 153 Kan. 766, 144 P. (2d) 320 (1941).

Recommended Citation

Harry M. Nayer, FUTURE INTERESTS - ACCELERATION OF CONTINGENT REMAINDERS AFTER WIDOW'S ELECTION TO TAKE AGAINST WILL, 40 Mich. L. Rev. 464 (1942).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol40/iss3/14