Also known as: antilapse statute · anti-lapse statute · anti-lapse statutes · anti-lapse laws
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
A statutory rule of construction providing that a devise to a protected relative who predeceases the testator passes instead to the devisee's surviving descendants.
Calvin left his farm equipment to the children of his two sisters. Liam, one of those children, died days before Calvin and left two teenage children. The antilapse statute treats Liam as a protected class member whose share passes by representation to his surviving children rather than lapsing into the residue.
Leo devised his rental properties equally to his brothers' children. Quinn, one niece, died a week before Leo and left two children. The antilapse statute counts Quinn as a class member and creates a substitute gift so her two children take her one-third share by representation while the surviving class members take their shares directly.
John N. Swanson executed his will on March 1, 1990. The residuary clause bequeathed one-half of the residue property to Hazel Brennan of Guilford, Connecticut, if she survives me. Brennan was Swanson's stepdaughter. Kathleen Smaldone, Brennan's child, was also named as a residuary legatee in the will. Brennan died on January 2, 2001. Swanson died seventeen days later. The will was admitted to probate on February 9, 2001. On April 26, 2002, the Probate Court concluded that the antilapse statute was not operative and that the bequest to Brennan lapsed, passing to the intestate estate. Fred Ruotolo and Charlene Ruotolo, beneficiaries under the will, filed a motion for appeal to the Superior Court from the Probate Court decision. Smaldone filed a cross appeal. Following a de novo hearing in the Superior Court, the court affirmed the judgment of the Probate Court. Smaldone appealed the Superior Court decision to the Appellate Court of Connecticut.
View caseNo. The statute leaves the survival requirement intact and instead creates a statutory substitute gift to the predeceased devisee's descendants when the devisee falls within the protected class.
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Most statutes protect devises to grandparents and descendants of grandparents and sometimes stepchildren, but they exclude the testator's spouse.
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Yes. Modern statutes treat an individual who would have taken under a class gift had the individual survived the testator as a class member for purposes of creating a substitute gift to that member's descendants.
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The antilapse statute yields to a contrary intention expressed in the will. An express alternative devise that routes the gift to the residue or another taker upon the devisee's failure to survive displaces the statutory substitute gift.
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…Jr., had children bom after the testator’s death makes a violation of the mie an actual fact. : The Massachusetts antilapse statute applies only to testamentary gifts to a child or other relation of a testator who predeceased the testator leaving issue surviving the testator and to class gifts to children or other…