Testamentary class gifts to children or remoter issue of the testator
Testamentary class gifts to children or remoter issue of the testator
Author: John Smart (2002)
WHEN DOES STATUTORY SUBSTITUTION OF ISSUE TAKE PLACE?
John Smart considers a recent case, Ling v Ling where the Court has to consider
the application of s.32(2) Wills Act 1 837
(taken from Issue No 19 – April 2002
Introduction
Readers of the TACT Review will be well aware of the doctrine of lapse, whereby the general rule is that a devise or bequest fails where a beneficiary predeceases the testator. It will be recalled that the doctrine does not apply to where there is a gift to a class (i.e. to a class of persons included or comprehended under some general description and bearing a certain relation to the testator or some other person) or where a gift is construed as being to persons as joint tenants. There is a further exception of somewhat uncertain ambit for what are sometimes described as ‘gifts in discharge of a moral obligation’ – in one case a direction to pay a statute-barred debt was upheld1 – but it is doubtful whether there is a general rule that gifts in discharge of moral obligations are exempt from the doctrine of lapse.
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The Trust Quarterly Review is published in partnership with STEP, it discusses matters of interest to trustees and executors with a focus on the particular interests of trust corporations in mind
