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Secret Trust
A secret trust is a trust which arises when property is left to a person (the legatee) under a will on the understanding that they will hold the property as trustee for the benefit of beneficiaries who are not named in the will. Secret trusts are divided into two types: *''Fully secret trusts'', where the will is totally silent as to the existence of a trust; and *''Semi secret trusts'' or ''half secret trusts'', where the will provides that the legatee is to hold the property on trusts, but does not specify the terms of the trust or the beneficiary. Secret trusts are something of a historical anachronism. They arose because in most common law jurisdictions, wills are public documents after they have been admitted to probate, and where the testator wishes to leave a legacy to (for example) a mistress or an illegitimate child without causing pain or embarrassment to his family, he could devise the property to a trusted person to avoid the name of the mistress or illegitimate child ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trust Law
A trust is a legal relationship in which the owner of property, or any transferable right, gives it to another to manage and use solely for the benefit of a designated person. In the English common law, the party who entrusts the property is known as the "settlor", the party to whom it is entrusted is known as the "trustee", the party for whose benefit the property is entrusted is known as the "beneficiary", and the entrusted property is known as the "corpus" or "trust property". A ''testamentary trust'' is an irrevocable trust established and funded pursuant to the terms of a deceased person's will. An inter vivos trust is a trust created during the settlor's life. The trustee is the legal owner of the assets held in trust on behalf of the trust and its beneficiaries. The beneficiaries are equitable owners of the trust property. Trustees have a fiduciary duty to manage the trust for the benefit of the equitable owners. Trustees must provide regular accountings of trust income ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legatee
A legatee, in the law of wills, is any individual or organization bequeathed any portion of a testator's estate. Usage Depending upon local custom, legatees may be called "devisees". Traditionally, "legatees" took personal property under will and "devisees" took land under will. ''Brooker v. Brooker'' (Tex. Civ.App., 76 S.W.2d 180, 183) asserts that "devisee" may refer to "those who take under will without any distinction between realty and personalty ... though commonly it refers to one who takes ''personal property''" under a will. See also *Beneficiary A beneficiary in the broadest sense is a natural person or other legal entity who receives money or other benefits from a benefactor. For example, the beneficiary of a life insurance policy is the person who receives the payment of the amount of ... References *'' Black's Law Dictionary'' 6th edition (West Publishing, St. Paul, MN: 1997), 453, 897. Wills and trusts {{law-term-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Will (law)
A will and 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. Though it has been thought a "will" historically applied only to real property, while "testament" applied only to personal property (thus giving rise to the popular title of the document as "last will and testament"), records show the terms have been used interchangeably. Thus, the word "will" validly applies to both personal and real property. A will may also create a testamentary trust that is effective only after the death of the testator. History Throughout most of the world, the disposition of a dead person's estate has been a matter of social custom. According to Plutarch, the written will was invented by Solon. Originally ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trustee
Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, refers to anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the benefit of another. A trustee can also be a person who is allowed to do certain tasks but not able to gain income.''Black's Law Dictionary, Fifth Edition'' (1979), p. 1357, . Although in the strictest sense of the term a trustee is the holder of property on behalf of a beneficiary, the more expansive sense encompasses persons who serve, for example, on the board of trustees of an institution that operates for a charity, for the benefit of the general public, or a person in the local government. A trust can be set up either to benefit particular persons or for any charitable purposes (but not generally for non-charitable purposes): typical examples are a will trust for the testator's children and family, a pension trust (to confer bene ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beneficiary (trust)
In trust law, a beneficiary (also known by the Law French terms and trust), is the person or persons who are entitled to the benefit of any trust arrangement. A beneficiary will normally be a natural person, but it is perfectly possible to have a company (law), company as the beneficiary of a trust, and this often happens in sophisticated commercial transaction structures. With the exception of charitable trusts, and some specific anomalous purpose trust, non-charitable purpose trusts, all trusts are required to have ascertainable beneficiaries. Generally speaking, there are no strictures as to who may be a beneficiary of a trust; a beneficiary can be a minor, or under a mental disability (in fact many trusts are created specifically for persons with those legal disadvantages). It is also possible to have trusts for unborn children, although the trusts must Vesting, vest within the applicable perpetuity period. Categorization There are various ways in which beneficiaries of tru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Common Law
Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on precedent—judicial rulings made in previous similar cases. The presiding judge determines which precedents to apply in deciding each new case. Common law is deeply rooted in Precedent, ''stare decisis'' ("to stand by things decided"), where courts follow precedents established by previous decisions. When a similar case has been resolved, courts typically align their reasoning with the precedent set in that decision. However, in a "case of first impression" with no precedent or clear legislative guidance, judges are empowered to resolve the issue and establish new precedent. The common law, so named because it was common to all the king's courts across England, originated in the practices of the courts of the English kings in the centuries fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Death
Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose shortly after death. Some organisms, such as '' Turritopsis dohrnii'', are biologically immortal; however, they can still die from means other than aging. Death is generally applied to whole organisms; the equivalent for individual components of an organism, such as cells or tissues, is necrosis. Something that is not considered an organism, such as a virus, can be physically destroyed but is not said ''to die'', as a virus is not considered alive in the first place. As of the early 21st century, 56 million people die per year. The most common reason is aging, followed by cardiovascular disease, which is a disease that affects the heart or blood vessels. As of 2022, an estimated total of almost 110 billion humans have died, or rou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Incorporation By Reference
In law, incorporation by reference is the act of including a second document within another document by only mentioning the second document. This act, if completed properly, makes the entire second document a part of the main document. Incorporation by reference is often found in laws, regulations, contracts, legal and regulated documentation. Administrative law in the United States In American administrative law, incorporation by reference is a drafting tool that enables federal agencies to give legal effect to materials that are already published elsewhere. This is allowed under a provision of the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(1). Section 552(a) requires agencies to publish regulations in the Federal Register in order to enforce them. Section 552(a)(1) provides that if material published elsewhere is "reasonably available to the class of persons affected" and the Director of the Federal Register approves its incorporation by reference, that material will be "deem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donatio Mortis Causa
A gift, in the law of property, is the voluntary and immediate transfer of property from one person (the donor or grantor) to another (the donee or grantee) without consideration. There are several type of gifts in property law, most notably ''inter vivos'' gifts which are made in the donor's lifetime and ''causa mortis'' (deathbed) gifts which are made in expectation of the donor's imminent death. Both types of gifts share three elements which must be met in order for the gift to be legally effective: donative intent (the intention of the donor to give the gift to the donee), the delivery of the gift to the donee, and the acceptance of the gift. In addition to those elements, ''causa mortis'' gifts require that the donor must die of the impending peril that he or she had contemplated when making the gift. ''Inter vivos'' gifts An ''inter vivos'' gift is an ordinary gift of personal property from one living person to another. It can be a gift of a present or future interest in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unjust Enrichment
Restitution and unjust enrichment is the field of law relating to gains-based recovery. In contrast with damages (the law of compensation), restitution is a claim or remedy requiring a defendant to give up benefits wrongfully obtained. Liability for restitution is primarily governed by the "principle of unjust enrichment": A person who has been unjustly enriched at the expense of another is required to make restitution. This principle derives from late Roman law, as stated in the Latin maxim attributed to Sextus Pomponius, ''Jure naturae aequum est neminem cum alterius detrimentum et injuria fieri locupletiorem'' ("By natural law it is just that no one should be enriched by another's loss or injury"). In civil law systems, it is also referred to as enrichment without cause or unjustified enrichment. In pre-modern English common law, restitutionary claims were often brought in an action for '' assumpsit'' and later in a claim for money had and received. The seminal case giving ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Public Policy
Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a Group decision-making, decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to Problem solving, solve or address relevant and problematic social issues, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. These policies govern and include various aspects of life such as education, health care, employment, finance, economics, transportation, and all over elements of society. The implementation of public policy is known as public administration. Public policy can be considered the sum of a government's direct and indirect activities and has been conceptualized in a variety of ways. They are created and/or enacted on behalf of the public, typically by a government. Sometimes they are made by Non-state actors or are made in Co-production (public services), co-production with communities or citizens, which can include potential experts, scientists, engineers and stakeholders or scientific data, or sometimes u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
All-Woman Supreme Court
The All-Woman Supreme Court refers to a special session of the Supreme Court of Texas which met in 1925. The court consisted of Hortense Sparks Ward, who was appointed special chief justice, Hattie Leah Henenberg, and Ruth Virginia Brazzil. It sat for five months, ruling on the case ''Johnson v. Darr'', and was the first all-female supreme court in the history of the United States. Background The roots of the All-Woman Supreme Court lay in a lawsuit which originated in El Paso and reached the state supreme court in 1924. The case, styled ''Johnson v. Darr'' (114 Tex. 516), involved a so-called "secret trust" under which the Woodmen of the World were claiming ownership of two tracts of land in the city. The high court was asked to review the decision made by the El Paso Court of Civil Appeals in the case. The case involved a lien on two tracts of land owned by the Woodmen in El Paso. A group of trustees from the group deeded both pieces to F. P. Jones, and the deed was properly re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
