Dodge Testamentary Trust
Michigan Court of Appeals
330 N.W.2d 72 (1982)

- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
John Dodge’s will established a trust for four of his six children. The will provided that upon the death of those four children, the trust would terminate, and the trust corpus would pass to the heirs of those four children, “in such proportion as by law such heirs shall be entitled to receive same.” The will did not define the term heirs, when the heirs’ interests would vest, or the law to which the will referred. Dodge was domiciled in Michigan. Upon the death of the last survivor of those four named children, the will was filed for probate. The probate court ruled that Dodge intended the term heirs to mean those who would inherit from the four named children under the intestacy laws of Michigan as applied at the time of the death of each of the four children. Seven appeals were filed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Beasley, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 833,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,500 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.