A husband by an antenuptial contract of marriage disponed his whole estate, heritable and moveable, to his wife in liferent and to the child or children of the intended marriage, and the issue of the bodies of such children, whom failing to his own heirs whomsoever in fee, under a declaration that if there was no child alive at the dissolution of the marriage the wife’s liferent should be limited to pounds 150. There was no trust created by this deed, and the husband retained his whole estate in his own possession until his death. He died, predeceased by his only child, and survived by his wife and one grandchild, leaving a trust-disposition and settlement executed a few years before his death under which his wife was given the unrestricted liferent of his whole estate. After her death his whole estate was to be converted into money, his grandchild was to receive a legacy upon attaining twenty-one years of age, and after payment of other legacies the residue of the estate was to be divided among the nephews and nieces of himself and of his wife.
Held (rev. the decision of the First Division) that the conveyance to the issue of children of the marriage was contractual and irrevocable, and conferred on the grandchildren a protected spes successionis, which could not be defeated by their grandfather’s settlement.
Judges:
Lord Chancellor (Herschell), and Lords Watson, Macnaghten, Morris, and Shand
Citations:
[1894] UKHL 279, 31 SLR 279
Links:
Jurisdiction:
Scotland
Family, Wills and Probate, Trusts
Updated: 27 April 2022; Ref: scu.634088