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Ex parte Estate late McDonald 1945 NPD 348, sometimes called Ex Parte McDonald was an important case in the South African law of succession, in which the testator bequeathed his entire estate to a trust subject to the granting of a usufruct in favour of his wife, so long as she remained unmarried, in which she received the full use and enjoyment of the income of his estate. Her life interest was subject to the condition that she should provide for, maintain and educate the children during their respective minorities.
The capital of the estate was, subject to the widow's life interest, bequeathed to their two children equally. In terms of the will, the trustees were to retain the family farm "Greyburn," the stock and equipment, and maintain the farm for the benefit of the family.
Before his death, the family ran into huge financial difficulties, and sold much of the stock and equipment, with the result that, at the time of his death, the farm was very deficient in cattle and implements.
Since the testator's death, the farm had been in charge of a caretaker at a cost of £20 a month, and had produced no income at all. It was said that it would be impossible to get a competent and reliable manager at a salary of less than £300 a year, and that on those terms, even if the farm were re-stocked and re-equipped, it was very questionable whether it would produce anything like an income anything like adequate for the purposes contemplated by the testator.
Moreover, since the death of the testator, his widow had been obliged for health reasons to reside elsewhere, and the medical evidence was that, in all probability, her health required that she should in the future continue to reside elsewhere than on the farm.
The court granted the trustees leave to sell the farm, on the grounds that, if the terms of the will were to be carried out strictly in accordance with their letter, the over-riding intention of the testator would be largely, if not entirely, defeated.
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A will or testament is a legal document that expresses a person's (testator) wishes as to how their property (estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person (executor) is to manage the property until its final distribution. For the distribution (devolution) of property not determined by a will, see inheritance and intestacy.
In English common law, fee tail or entail is a form of trust, established by deed or settlement, that restricts the sale or inheritance of an estate in real property and prevents that property from being sold, devised by will, or otherwise alienated by the tenant-in-possession, and instead causes it to pass automatically, by operation of law, to an heir determined by the settlement deed. The term fee tail is from Medieval Latin feodum talliatum, which means "cut(-short) fee". Fee tail deeds are in contrast to "fee simple" deeds, possessors of which have an unrestricted title to the property, and are empowered to bequeath or dispose of it as they wish. Equivalent legal concepts exist or formerly existed in many other European countries and elsewhere.
Wills have a lengthy history.
Estate planning is the process of anticipating and arranging for the management and disposal of a person's estate during the person's life in preparation for a person's future incapacity or death. The planning includes the bequest of assets to heirs, loved ones, and/or charity, and may include minimizing gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer taxes. Estate planning includes planning for incapacity, reducing or eliminating uncertainties over the administration of a probate, and maximizing the value of the estate by reducing taxes and other expenses. The ultimate goal of estate planning can only be determined by the specific goals of the estate owner, and may be as simple or complex as the owner's wishes and needs directs. Guardians are often designated for minor children and beneficiaries with incapacity.
Ademption, or ademption by extinction, is a common law doctrine used in the law of wills to determine what happens when property bequeathed under a will is no longer in the testator's estate at the time of the testator's death. For a devise (bequest) of a specific item of property, such property is considered adeemed, and the gift fails. For example, if a will bequeathed the testator's car to a specific beneficiary, but the testator owned no car at the time of his or her death, the gift would be adeemed and the aforementioned beneficiary would receive no gift at all.
Historically, a bequest is personal property given by will and a devise is real property given by will. Today, the two words are often used interchangeably.
Forced heirship is a form of testate partible inheritance which mandates how the deceased's estate is to be disposed and which tends to guarantee an inheritance for family of the deceased.
Saunders v Vautier[1841] EWHC J82, (1841) 4 Beav 115 is a leading English trusts law case. It laid down the rule of equity which provides that, if all of the beneficiaries in the trust are of adult age and under no disability, the beneficiaries may require the trustee to transfer the legal estate to them and thereby terminate the trust. The rule has been repeatedly affirmed in common law jurisdictions, and is commonly referred to as "the rule in Saunders v Vautier" for shorthand.
Howe v Earl of Dartmouth (1802) 7 Ves 137 is an English trusts law case. It laid down the rule of equity in relation to the duties of a trustee in relation to a trust fund where there are successive interests in relation to the trust fund, and seeks to strike a fair balance between the rights of the life tenant and the remainderman. It is one of a number of highly technical common law rules which causes considerable angst where wills and trusts have not been professionally prepared.
Price v. Watkins, 1 U.S. 8 is a decision of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, issued when Pennsylvania was still a British colony. It is among the first decisions that appear in the first volume of United States Reports.
In English law, secret trusts are a class of trust defined as an arrangement between a testator and a trustee, made to come into force after death, that aims to benefit a person without having been written in a formal will. The property is given to the trustee in the will, and he would then be expected to pass it on to the real beneficiary. For these to be valid, the person seeking to enforce the trust must prove that the testator intended to form a trust, that this intention was communicated to the trustee, and that the trustee accepted his office. There are two types of secret trust — fully secret and half-secret. A fully secret trust is one with no mention in the will whatsoever. In the case of a half-secret trust, the face of the will names the trustee as trustee, but does not give the trust's terms, including the beneficiary. The most important difference lies in communication of the trust: the terms of a half-secret trust must be communicated to the trustee before the execution of the will, whereas in the case of a fully secret trust the terms may be communicated after the execution of the will, as long as this is before the testator's death.
Dillwyn v Llewelyn [1862] is an 'English' land, probate and contract law case which established an example of proprietary estoppel at the testator's wish overturning his last Will and Testament; the case concerned land in Wales demonstrating the united jurisdiction of England and Wales.
The law of persons in South Africa regulates the birth, private-law status and the death of a natural person. It determines the requirements and qualifications for legal subjectivity in South Africa, and the rights and responsibilities that attach to it.
The South African law of succession prescribes the rules which determine the devolution of a person's estate after his death, and all matters incidental thereto. It identifies the beneficiaries who are entitled to succeed to the deceased's estate, and the extent of the benefits they are to receive, and determines the different rights and duties that persons may have in a deceased's estate. It forms part of private law.
Insolvency in South African law refers to a status of diminished legal capacity imposed by the courts on persons who are unable to pay their debts, or whose liabilities exceed their assets. The insolvent's diminished legal capacity entails deprivation of certain of his important legal capacities and rights, in the interests of protecting other persons, primarily the general body of existing creditors, but also prospective creditors. Insolvency is also of benefit to the insolvent, in that it grants him relief in certain respects.
In Estate Orpen v Estate Atkinson, an important case in the South African law of succession, the testators, the Atkinsons, massed their estates in a joint will. They had one child, a daughter. According to the stipulations of the will, the massed estate would, upon the death of Mr. Atkinson, should he die first, be handed over to the executors of the estate, who would act as trustees; a trust was thus created.
In Ex Parte Estate Davies, an important case in South African succession law, the testator bequeathed £2000 in his will to a person who was not named in the will itself, but on a document which was in a sealed envelope given to his attorney. This document was not signed by witnesses.
Ex Parte Naude was an important case in South African succession law. It involved a testator who had set aside three of the shares into which he had divided his estate. This was done for the purpose of establishing a trust fund—with power to the trustees to invest the capital constituting the trust—and an obligation imposed upon them to use the interest derived from the investments for certain specified purposes. In the event of a surplus of interest over and above the amount required for the said purposes, they were to apply the surplus in augmentation of the trust fund. The capital of the fund, however, was not to exceed £50,000.
Testate succession exists under the law of succession in South Africa.
In Anderson v Estate Anderson, an important case in the South African law of succession, the testator had bequeathed a farm to his four sons, subject to a fideicommissum in favour of their eldest sons to the fourth generation, and subject to the limitation that any son selling his share was bound to sell to the remaining sons or son.