Also known as: no interest · nointerest · interest-free · zero-interest
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A rule in donative transfers providing that a beneficiary who is deceased when the donative document takes effect acquires no interest in the property.
Nestor Navarro's will left his farm to his brother Nathan, who had died two weeks earlier. When the will took effect at Nestor Navarro's death, Nathan's estate received nothing because Nathan was already deceased. The property instead passed under the residuary clause to Nestor Navarro's surviving children.
After appointment as personal representative, Nora Nash mailed notice only to the children listed in the intestacy application. She omitted an out-of-state sister whose address was on file and who had been adjudicated to hold no interest in a prior proceeding. The sister later challenged the omission, but the court held that the personal representative owed no duty to persons already determined to hold no interest.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A foreign insurer challenged an Alabama tax that favored domestic companies. The insurer argued the statute gave it no interest in forming a local subsidiary and therefore imposed an unconstitutional burden. The Court examined whether the state could impose the tax on an entity that held no interest in the favored activity.
An out-of-state corporation launched a tender offer for shares of an Illinois target. Illinois claimed regulatory authority, but the offeror asserted it held no interest in the target's internal corporate affairs. The Court considered whether the state could regulate parties that held no interest in the internal corporate relationships.
After an accident, the parties disputed which state's law applied. One state had no contact with the litigation except as the forum and therefore held no interest in applying its substantive rule. The Court noted that a state with no interest in the underlying dispute could not displace the law of a state that did hold an interest.
A gallery purchased a painting from a seller who had no valid title. The original owner later sued, asserting that the gallery acquired no interest because the seller held none to convey. The court applied the rule that a transferee obtains no interest when the transferor possessed none.
A beneficiary takes no interest if the beneficiary is deceased at the moment the donative document becomes effective. The rule is mandatory and applies whether the gift is to an individual or a class member. Survival must occur by the effective date unless the document expressly requires a different survival period.
Supporting sources
No. The statute expressly relieves the personal representative of any duty to inform persons already adjudicated in a prior formal testacy proceeding to hold no interest in the estate. Notice is required only for heirs and devisees whose addresses are reasonably available and who have not been so adjudicated.
Supporting sources
A secured party may obtain an interest in after-acquired property only if the security agreement expressly covers it and the debtor later acquires rights in the collateral. If the agreement contains no such clause, the secured party holds no interest in property acquired after the agreement date.
Supporting sources
…practice in vogue in 1791." Dimick v. Schiedt , 293 U. S., at 490-491. Because the Framers of the Seventh Amendment evinced no interest in subscribing to every procedural nicety of the notoriously complicated English system, see Henderson, The Background of the Seventh Amendment, 80 Harv. L. Rev. 289, 290 (1966), the…