Also known as: ascertainable
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A quality of being capable of identification or determination with sufficient definiteness or certainty.
Easton created a trust directing the trustee to maintain a private theater for screening films about his career. No individuals were named and no objective criteria identified any performers who might benefit. The court held the trust enforceable for twenty-one years because the purpose itself supplied the necessary definiteness even without named beneficiaries.
Anchor Bank and Aether Technologies signed an agreement whose stated goal was to develop software for secure financial transactions. When a dispute arose over scope, the court examined all surrounding circumstances and gave controlling weight to the readily identifiable commercial objective the parties had expressed.
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Avalon Pharmaceuticals faced a suit on behalf of all patients who had received a recalled drug. The court required mailed notice to every patient whose name and address appeared in the company's records because those individuals were readily identifiable, while publication sufficed for others whose identities could not be determined.
Adrian Aguilar created a trust allowing the trustee to distribute funds for his daughter's health, education, support, or maintenance. Because the standard tied distributions to concrete personal needs listed in the Internal Revenue Code, the court treated the standard as sufficiently definite to limit the trustee's discretion.
Abigail Alvarez received a trust interest permitting annual withdrawals of thirty percent of principal, but only with the written consent of a corporate officer whose bonus depended on preserving reserves. The consent requirement triggered the adverse-interest exception, rendering the power non-exercisable under the statutory definition.
Antonio Alvarado sought to represent all customers overcharged by Alpine Mining under a uniform pricing scheme. The court refused certification because individual inquiries into each transaction would be required to decide membership, rendering the proposed class administratively unmanageable.
A trust for a noncharitable purpose remains valid without named or definitely identifiable beneficiaries provided the purpose itself is lawful and the trust is not enforced beyond twenty-one years.
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The court examines all circumstances surrounding the agreement. When the parties' principal objective can be identified, that objective receives controlling weight in interpretation.
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Due process requires the best practicable notice, typically mail, to every individual whose name and address is known or reasonably identifiable. Publication alone is insufficient for those persons.
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A standard qualifies when it is limited to an individual's health, education, support, or maintenance as defined by the referenced Internal Revenue Code provisions.
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The power fails to qualify if it is exercisable only with the consent of the trustee or a person holding an adverse interest, or if it is held by a trustee and limited by an ascertainable standard.
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…if same-sex marriage becomes widely accepted. The long-term consequences of this change are not now known and are unlikely to be ascertainable for some time to come. There are those who think that allowing same-sex marriage will seriously undermine the institution of marriage. Others think that recognition of same-sex marriage…