State Laws and Oral Wills: A Case Study

* This is a will contest case involving a codicil to the Last Will and Testament of Wheelock A. Bisson, M.D., deceased.

3. Voluntary - The will should be stated free of any force or threat, and in response to information revealed, because understanding of the choices and their penalties has been achieved. When an honest choice is made the patient takes a part of responsibility of the fallout.

As shareholders of VAFLA Corporation, an S corporation, the appellants claimed deductions to reflect the corporation’s operating losses. The commissioner disallowed deductions above the $10,000 bases from original investment. The appellants contend that the adjusted basis in their stock should be increased to reflect a $300,000 loan. The loan was obtained by VAFLA from bank and was guaranteed by the shareholder-guarantors. VAFLA made all of the loan payments, principals and interest to the bank and the appellants did not. Neither VAFLA nor the shareholder-guarantors treated the loan as constructive income taxable to the shareholder-guarantors.

Sandy Glastor (Paralegal) has joined his family for Thanksgiving. Sandy’s grandfather asks a general question (to everyone sitting at the table) about writing a holographic will on letterhead stationery. (Grandfather’s question is whether the printed part of the stationery invalidates the will because the will is not written entirely in the testator’s handwriting.) Sandy takes Grandfather’s question as a hypothetical and responds to it along with everyone else at the table throwing in their opinions. Later that night, Grandfather rewrites his holographic will on a blank piece of paper based on Sandy’s reply to the question. Which of the following is true?

In todays world an Ethical Will seems almost foreign to many people. A monetary or property Will is a type of Will that people are most familiar with. This deals with ones property being distributed to a younger generation upon or near death.2 The encyclopedia Judaica defines a Will as a, “person’s disposition of his property in favor of another in such manner that the testator retains the property or his rights to it until his death.”5(page65) Some may be unaware that there are different types of monetary Wills. The first is called a Mattenat Bari, which means, “gift by a healthy person.”5 (page 65) The second type is called a Mattenat Shekhiv, “a gift by a person critically ill.” 5 (pg65) The last type is called an Mezavveh

Martin Luther considered by many to be a great theologian makes very strong arguments against Eramus concerning grace and free will in Bondage of the Will. Both men have strong view points and are both eloquent writers, Eramus believes that man has the power to either turn towards works that lead to salvation or he has the choice not to. Eramus writes to show that man can voluntarily choose (free will) salvation apart from God. Eramus seems to believe that there exists some type of cooperativeness with mankind and God. Whereas, Luther is writing to show that there exist no cooperativeness and salvation is the work of God alone. For the purposes of this paper I will discuss Luther’s arguments in sub-section two. In this paper I will review

"One question many have is, "what is probate?". This legal process begins when a loved one passes and is designed to show a will is valid, In addition, the process involves the identification

(TCO D) A patient's family may be actively involved in end-of-life decisions for patients who are incapacitated or incompetent. Compare and contrast two legal cases that address the rights

Death is something that most people do not like to think about, much less talk about. It is easy to see why the important decisions involving one’s own end of life decisions or the decisions of a loved one are conversations easily pushed to the back burner. Before it is too late, people should fill out an advance directive, including a living will and durable power of attorney, to decrease the burden and uncertainty that could be left to loved ones. People should also consider the type of care they would like to receive at the end of their life and what to do with their body once they have died. Having plans surrounding one’s death is beneficial to everyone involved, as it gives a clear plan on how to proceed.

This paper concerns the ethical basis for advance directives, or “Living Wills”; the value of these advance directives to the patients, their families; and the authorities that these advance directives give the above mentioned interested parties.

Living Wills, sometimes called Advanced Directives, are legal documents accepted in all 50 states. They clearly define a person’s wish to decline life-support or medical treatment in certain circumstances, usually when death is imminent. Generally, a living will takes effect when a person becomes terminally ill, permanently unconscious or conscious with irreversible brain damage.

The following is a case study of Blackwell v Blackwell, that is connected to the principle of Secret Trusts and particularly Half Secret Trusts. In order for the principle to be understood, it is significant to expatiate on what secret trusts are and the several laws revolving around them. In general terms, a secret trust arises where a testator, A, tells B that he is leaving property to B on his death, and that he wishes B to hold it on trust for C, even though no trust for C has been set out in any formal will executed by A. If B agrees, when the property passes to B on A's death, the court will enforce the secret trust despite its informality and require B to hold the property for C. In secret trusts, two different types are recognised by the courts, one where the trustee and the terms of the trust are not mentioned in the will, this is a fully secret trust while a half secret trust is subject to a trust obligation which is apparent on the face of the Will, but the terms of the trust and the identity of the beneficiary are not disclosed. The trustee is not in position to deny the trust and can not fraudulently take the property because he is a trustee for someone. Equity will not allow him take the property beneficially. The major difference between both is the extent in which disclosure is made as to the recipient of the gift intends to take the property as a trustee rather than for himself. Secret Trusts can also arise where there is no will, it may be in a case of

The advance directive, or living will, is one way of circumventing the ethical dilemma of Quinlan, as it is essentially a set of choices by the competent patient if faced with different hypothetical circumstances. Patients can thus feel comfortable knowing that their competent wishes have been documented and can be easily interpreted in case of catastrophe. However, the authority of advance directives is a topic hotly debated amongst medical ethicists (see Advance Directive Authority). Arguments against directives state that not all factors are considered by the person creating the advance order. Also, in some cases of severe dementia, it is argued that the personal identity of the author is no longer intact and therefore has no authority over the treatment of the “new” person. The debate on this topic is extremely complex, but many of today’s cases are decided on an individual basis, with the directive often being upheld.

The famous US decision of Riggs v Palmer serves to illustrate a considerable strength in Dworkin’s argument concerning rules and principles. The New York court had to decide a case to determine whether a grandson who poisoned his grandfather to obtain his inheritance was in fact able to collect such an inheritance. At the time, there existed no statute or law that invalidated his claim as a beneficiary due to his involvement in the murder. Furthermore, the applicable legal rule seemed to be that legacies contained in legally valid testamentary dispositions are to be guaranteed by law in accordance with the wishes of the testator. According to Hart, the court should, in this situation, be decided upon pre-existing law. Yet despite this, the court majority found that the grandson could not inherit, instead appealing to moral reasoning by citing the principle that no one should be able to profit from ones crimes. A similar decision based on principle was handed down 70 years later in the case of Henningsen v Bloomfield Motors Inc. As a result of these cases, Dworkin is able

In Milroy, the deceased executed a deed, which used wrong formality, to set up a trust of shares in favour of his niece. The niece argued that