WILLS-CONSTRUCTION-EFFECT OF PRECATORY WORDS RELATING -TO DISPOSITION OF PROPERTY ON DONEE'S DEATH

Authors

Donald M. Wilkinson, Jr., University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

After two bequests, each of an absolute interest in one-third of her property, to a niece and a nephew, testatrix bequeathed the remaining one-third of her estate to her husband " ... to have and to hold subject to the request hereinafter stated. It, however, is my wish and desire and I charge my said husband ... to make disposition ... so that it will not pass to his heirs upon his death, but shall revert, after his death, to my heirs and be distributed to the legatees named in subparagraphs A. and B. of this clause Eighth ... subject, however, that my husband shall be at full liberty to use, have and keep all the income ... and so much of the principal and corpus as he may find convenient and desirable for his comfort, advantage and enjoyment .... " Plaintiff petitioned for a construction of the will, contending that the bequest to the husband was of something less than a fee. The lower court adopted this construction, but on appeal, held, reversed. In the light of the husband's right to invade the corpus of one-third portion of the estate, the testatrix intended to invest in him an absolute fee supplemented by an unenforceable desire that he dispose of the property on his death to her heirs. Grover v. Wood, 337 Mich. 467, 60 N.W. (2d) 316 (1953).

Recommended Citation

Donald M. Wilkinson, Jr., WILLS-CONSTRUCTION-EFFECT OF PRECATORY WORDS RELATING -TO DISPOSITION OF PROPERTY ON DONEE'S DEATH, 52 Mich. L. Rev. 1081 (1954).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol52/iss7/18